I Don't Like The Catcher in the Rye
by ShaenaV
Summary: AU Makimachi Misao is a junior in Kyoto High. Join her as she deals with school, best friends, love, Aoshi and not liking The Catcher in the Rye. Actually this story has very little to do with the novel, thankfully, I just couldn't think of a better title
1. Chapter 1

**I Don't Like The Catcher in the Rye**

_**Chapter 1 **_

"_Misao_!!!"

"Hrm?" raising a sleepy head, Makimachi Misao squinted at the bright light streaming in from her window and straight into her eyes. Dropping back her head back, she flopped over and pulled her pillows over her head. _It is too _early_ for this… _she thought grumpily, shifting again in bed. She heard footsteps coming up the stairs and groaned.

"What are you doing still in bed?!" her foster mother demanded, flinging the door open.

"What do you think I'm doing, I'm _sleeping_!" she retorted irritably, burying herself further in her covers. Why couldn't they just leave her alone?!

"What time is your school?" Mrs Ketsuna snapped, annoyed at being talked back to yet again by the small form huddled under the blankets.

"Niine!" Misao groaned back. Why did adults feel compelled to ask idiotic questions they already knew the answers to?

"It's already 8:30, get up and go to school or you're going to be late!"

"I won't be, leave me alone!" she yelled, exasperation making her finally raise her head from underneath her pillow. "I still have 10 minutes that I can sleep so go away you're ruining it!" Did these people really think that she, as a 17 year old teenager, would not have calculated right down to the _exact_ second how long it would take for her to get to school?

Her foster mother stood at the door for a few seconds before slamming the door shut behind her. Misao listened to her footsteps disappear down the stairs and sighed gratefully, pulling her head out from under the pillow and turning onto her back, her arm across her face.

_10 more minutes…_

-

_Shit._

That was the only word that entered her mind as she raced down the streets on her bicycle, her long braid flailing wildly behind her. People scrambled to get out of the haphazard path her bicycle was taking, some yelling curses at her retreating back.

_Shit shit shit shit shit._

"So much for 10 minutes huh?" her so-called foster mother had yelled after her when a frantic Misao had dashed out the front door a half hour after their encounter in the room, jacket and jeans thrown over her sleeping shirt, toothbrush in hand. She had 10 minutes to get to class before the second bell rung. Even though classes _officially_ started at 9, there was a 10 minute leeway which she had always taken to her full advantage, never arriving before 9am.

_Argh, I can't afford to be late again, _she thought wildly, narrowly missing colliding with an old lady.

"Hey watch where you're going punk!"

_I'm in enough trouble for that as it is already!_ Pulling out her cell phone from her jacket pocket with one hand precariously steering the bicycle, she stole a glance at the time. 9:05. _I THINK I can make it…_

Kyoto High loomed straight ahead, coming into view suddenly having been blocked by a large building Misao was _still_ not sure served what purpose. She pulled into the bicycle bay and hastily chained her bicycle to the stand, and then raced up the stairs and to homeroom. _Curse the fact that it's on the third bloody floor!_ she thought, her legs aching from the exertion she was putting on them. Not that she was out of shape, she happened to be the best striker on the school's girls soccer team, but practice had been particularly exhausting and her muscles still ached from the intense workout it had underwent the previous day.

"Ah, Makimachi-_san_, I see you have finally decided to grace us with your presence." Saitou Hajime, the person she personally considered to be the biggest ass in the universe and unfortunately her class' personal tutor, was sitting with his feet propped on the teacher's desk, a cigarette smoking from his mouth. Misao was quite sure smoking on school grounds was not allowed, even if you were a teacher, but as far as she knew, no one ever dared tell that to Saitou.

"I'm only 5 minutes late!" she gasped, leaning on the doorway to catch her breath.

"Actually, you're 15 minutes late," he corrected, giving her a wolfish grin. "But since the board insists on the ridiculous notion of giving you slackers a 10 minute allowance, I'll grant you that. However…" He trailed off, and she watched nervously as his grin broadened. She did _not_ like where this was going.

"Since you're given those extra 10 minutes to get here, technically you have no excuse to actually _be _late. Detention after school today Makimachi." He ignored her indignant protests. "Will you take a seat already, or do we have to wait another 5 minutes for you to make up your mind."

Cursing him under her breath, Misao stomped over to her seat in the third row, slamming her bag onto the table and throwing herself into the chair. Saitou ignored her, stubbing his cigarette out on the table and standing up to give the day's announcements. She glared at the tall man who stood in front of the class, tugging at the frayed end of the strap on her sling bag.

_This is so not fair! _she thought angrily, imagining the threads she was quite violently yanking out were actually that hated man's hair. _It's not like I'm half an hour late, like the last few times! In fact 5 minutes is a GOOD thing for me!_

Suddenly, Saitou's bored intonation was cut off by the appearance of a tall, spiky haired guy at the doorway, grinning sheepishly with a fish-bone sticking out of his mouth.

"Sorry, woke up late," he said, scratching the back of his head. _No kidding_, she thought, taking in his disheveled—wait, make that even _more _disheveled than usual appearance and messy hair.

"Ahou," Saitou said, turning away from him. "Sit down. Detention today. _Again_."

Shrugging, Sagara Sanosuke took his seat to the left of Misao and she leaned over, flashing him a wide grin.

"Guess I'm not gonna be lonely today, rooster head," she whispered. "_I _was only 5 freaking minutes late. Although, come to think of it, the only thing that would have worried me would be to _not_ see you in detention hall."

"Har har," he said, yawning loudly and leaning back in a stretch. Saitou stopped his announcements to glare daggers at him before continuing. "I got laid last night, what's _your _excuse, weasel?"

"Sano!" Kaoru, who sat in front of him, gasped and turned around, scandalized.

"What??" he said, lifting his palms up in mock indignation. "I didn't go into the details did I? Like how we were at it like—"

"We are not interested in your sex life, Sagara no ahou," Saitou interrupted smoothly. "Please refrain from discussing it so loudly. In fact, discussing anything in your loud, _obnoxious_ voice should be against the rules, I'll make it a point to bring it up in the next staff meeting."

"Why you—" Sanosuke growled, sitting up in his chair.

"Sano!" Misao hissed. "Shut the hell up before you get yourself into more trouble!"

"Yes, listen to that weasel friend of yours," Saitou said in a bored tone.

"What?! I am _not_ a—" she began angrily, slamming her hand on the table.

"_Both_ of you!" Kaoru cut her off, annoyed. "Grow up!" Slouching back into her chair, Misao crossed her arms across her chest and muttered angrily to herself, Sano doing the same thing. Saitou dismissed them ("That's all, get lost.") and they packed up their things and left for their next class.

"Argh!" Misao shrieked as she and Kaoru made their way to Literature, their first class for the day. "That cold-hearted bastard is such a… _Bastard!_"

"Now now," Kaoru intoned absently. She was used to Misao's constant ranting and raving. Although they had only started hanging out with one another since the start of their junior year, she and Misao had somehow managed to develop a steadfast friendship within those few months. That they shared more than half their classes together only strengthened the relationship they had, and had been near inseparable. Kaoru never really felt like she fit in. Shy and quiet, she knew some of her classmates considered her a something of a prude. She was an active member of the Student's Union, and an honour roll student.

Misao, on the other hand, was practically her polar opposite. Loud, impulsive and constantly getting into minor brawls, mostly with Sano, she was on the school soccer team, hated classes and did just enough to pass. Why the two of them got along was a mystery even to her sometimes. Kaoru sighed, as Misao started cursing and swearing again at Saitou.

"Well you know how he is," she said matter-of-factly, finally managing to add something to the conversation while Misao paused for a deep gulp of air. "You shouldn't've been late in the first place."

"Kaoru!" Misao whined. "You're supposed to be on _my_ side! You're only defending him 'cause he _likes_ you!"

"No he doesn't," she replied, rolling her eyes good-naturedly. "He called me a baka yesterday for answering his question wrongly remember?"

"Oh yeah…" Misao said, finger to the corner of her mouth as she thought. "Come to think of it, I don't think there isn't a single person in class he hasn't insulted or humiliated. Haha what an asshole."

"Misao!"

"What?!"

-

First period Literature found Misao with her elbows propped on the desk, chin in her hands as she stared dreamily at the back of the head of the junior who sat in front of her. Kaoru always grumbled about her wanting to sit so far back, but she had always ignored her. Since the object of her affections—a new student who had transferred to Kyoto High near the start of their junior year—liked to sit near the back, she had always made it a point to try and get the last row so he would always be in her field of vision. Today it was her lucky day, for as fate would have it, he was sitting directly in front of her! _Shinomori Aoshi…_ she sighed. _Even his _name_ is beautiful._

"If Makimachi-san will stop day dreaming," their English teacher, Aritomo Okubo's voice penetrated the foggy haze that had descended on her brain she looked up, blinking away the daydream. "She would care to discuss with us the significant events that occurred after Holden left Pencey Prep." _Pencey what?_

"Erm…" she said, standing up in her seat. She fumbled in her bag for the book.

"Yes, taking the book out _would_ be a good idea," Okubo-sensei said dryly. Some students laughed.

"Argh, where _is_ it," she muttered, searching for it. She sneaked a peek at Aoshi, but he had not turned in his seat and seemed to be actually _reading _the damn book! Finally, she gave up and, leaning to her right side, plucked the book right out of Sanosuke's hands.

"Hey!"

"Shut up rooster-head I need it," she snapped. She flipped open the book and started skimming through the pages. Gods she hated_ The Catcher in the Rye._ She had tried reading the first chapter and gave up after two lines, it was _that_ boring.

"Pencey, Pencey…" she muttered. "What the hell is a Pencey?"

"Pencey Prep is, for your information, Makimachi-san, the school where our protagonist boarded at, as you would see for yourself on the sixth line of the _second_ page." Several more smirks which she ignored.

"I dunno!" she exclaimed finally, throwing up her hands in exasperation and tossing the book back to Sano, who uttered a curse as the unexpected action caught him by surprise and the book connected with his head. Who _cared_ what happened to this Holden person? "He went on a wild rampage of wanton destruction, destroying everything in his path until finally the guilt of what he had done began eating him alive from the inside and he killed himself by taking cyanide and shooting himself? Like Hitler?" Several sniggers could be heard.

Okubo-sensei stared at her like she'd grown another head.

"What? It could happen!" she said defensively, folding her arms across her chest. "If _I_ wrote the book that's how it would've gone!"

"Clearly, future in writing would be out of the question for you," he commented, absently motioning for her to sit down. "Next time, _please_ read the chapters you are assigned to do so, and spare us a horrendous rendition of what _you_ think a great American classic should be. And bring the _book _for goodness' sake, I'm sure that empty _sack_ of yours can fit _one_ paperback novel."

She rolled her eyes. She didn't _hate_ Okubo-sensei, not in the way she hated Saitou, but he just had a snotty way of talking that grated on her nerves sometimes, although she knew he wasn't really trying to be condescending. It was just how he spoke, that dry sarcasm that was not mean, just… incredibly aggravating! She scowled as she sat back in her chair. Throughout her little monologue, not _once_ did Shinomori Aoshi turn to even look at her!

"Nice going weasel," Sano smirked. "At least _I_ brought the book."

"Oh shut up," she replied, turning her head away from him and resting it on her outstretched arm. If he wasn't going to turn around, well, she'd have to contend with spending the rest of Literature staring at the back of his head. There were worse days to spend the day.

* * *

**Author's rants (10th August 2007) **: 

Well, here it is. My first Aoshi Misao fanfiction, I've actually been a huge AM fan since 7 years ago, but school and life kinda got into the way and I stopped reading for a long long time (6 odd years I think). Recently, I just got back into AM fanfiction, and, not quite finding enough (there can _never_ be enough!) out there I decided to write one exactly how _I_ want it, ha-hah!

Anyway, constructive criticism is extremely welcome. I'm a sucker for details, so please point out any typos or grammatical and punctuation errors, they bug me like crazy! My exams are coming up (next Monday in fact) so I probably won't have time to update. Fortunately, I've already written chapter 2, I'll probably post it up next Wednesday... I think I'm gonna try and update this thing _at least _once a week, so that I can both discipline myself and improve as a writer, I've stopped writing for years and I realize how rusty I am at coming up with words (but then again, I used to be a horrible writer).

I'm not sure where this fic is headed, I have a vague idea of what I want to happen, but everything in between I'm kinda just making it up as I go along, which is kinda cool cause I get to watch the story unfold by itself, it feels more organic and less forced. I also have no clue how long I plan on this fic being, actually I'm working on another AM fic which is alot more serious than this one, and I couldn't quite get into it and I'd always liked reading about AM in a school setting so I thought this would be fun to help me write the other one. I know, I'm almost 20 and I'm still a sucker for teenage angst and romance, haha. So sue me.

Oh, and another thing, I'm not entirely sure how the high school system works out in America or Japan, I actually live in Singapore, so I've kinda fused the American culture (from what I've learnt from reading lots of books and fanfics anyway) into their lifestyle even though they're supposed to be living in Japan and are Japanese and speak Japanese. But they have like Literature on English books which I guess isn't all _that_ weird, I guess it could've been translated to Japanese. I couldn't really be bothered with making it realistic, it's just something I'm doing for fun so I'm not gonna bother with any real research. I _do _welcome info on how Japanese and American school is like and suggestions on how I can incorporate them in without making it seem too confusing or far fetched. Thanks in advance, oh and thanks for reading this. Both the fic and my long-winded ramblings. :)


	2. Chapter 2

**I Don't Like The Catcher in the Rye**

**_Chapter 2 _**

It would not be entirely fair to call Shinomori Aoshi a _new_ student, Misao further reflected after Literature class, walking absent-mindedly towards her locker. Kaoru had hurried off to some urgent, last minute Student's Union meeting (_that girl has no life)_ and Misao was left to her own devices for the ten minutes they got between classes to get to their respective venues.

She paused at her locker thoughtfully, her fingers dialing the combination without her brain actually participating in the action. In fact, Shinomori Aoshi and Misao had shared a childhood together. His parents were good friends with the foster family she had been living with at the time, so he was over at her house almost every afternoon while their mothers swapped the latest gossiped over steaming cups of tea.

A bright but quiet child, Aoshi had preferred reading to 'gallivanting around' as he often told Misao. She, in turn, would stick her tongue out at his 'big words' and would drag him out into the yard to play pirates with her. Oddly enough, he never complained, and in fact seemed quite happy to let himself be dragged around by the tiny girl. At the tender age of six, Misao was a loud, endless source of boisterous energy, and simply _adored_ her 'Aoshi-sama'.

No one could get her to stop adding the honorific and it had stuck—Aoshi had, one afternoon after being forced by the girl to play samurai, declared that since he was older and the head samurai, she had to call him 'Aoshi-sama'. The small girl, delighted that the older boy had contributed to their play making (_"He's too quiet for a pirate captain!"_), had started calling him such from then on. The boy had blushed when he went over the next day and she had continued calling him what he had, caught up in her excitement unthinkingly yelled out.

Eventually he got used to it, and it seemed treated the adoring young girl with more gentleness and care thereafter. She loved him to death, and it seemed the steadfast, unquestioning nature of a six year old's love had won over the heart of the usually stoic, indifferent boy.

Sadly, their time together came to an end when his parents had quite abruptly moved out of the country. A young Misao had, convinced that 'the evil pirate rivals' were jealous of his superior skills and had finally gotten to him, stomped through the house every afternoon after kindergarden searching every nook and cranny, certain she would find her Aoshi-sama bound and gagged.

After the realization that she would never see him again sank in, she had cried in her room for days on end, refusing to go to school until they brought her back her Aoshi-sama. It was through much cajoling and many of Misao's favourite dishes that finally ended her huge tantrum, but it would take another 2 years before she finally stopped crying in her sleep for her Aoshi-sama.

"Oi! Weasel, what are you standing there with that stupid grin on your face for?"

Snapped out of her day dream, Misao slammed her locker door shut and sent a flying kick to Sano's head.

"WHO YOU CALLING WEASEL, YOU DUMB ROOSTER?!"

"OW! WHAT THE, DUMB—"

"Maa maa, Sano," Himura Kenshin, his shorter, slightly feminine companion interjected timidly, holding the taller boy back. "You could get into trouble for fighting in the halls, de gozaru. Again."

"Cheh," Sano said, shrugging Kenshin off. "She started it!"

"I most certainly did not!" Misao retorted indignantly. "_You _started it with the name calling!"

"YOU started it by wearing that stupid grin on your face, looking all weaselly," he replied haughtily, crossing his arms stubbornly. "I _had_ to say something!"

"What! I was _not _wearing a stupid grin!" she said angrily. "I was just… reminiscing. _I_ happen to enjoy my life, unlike you, you stupid love hating, worm eating rooster!"

"Worm eating!" he cried, throwing a punch in her direction she just narrowly avoided.

"Hey, watch it!" she said, jumping backwards. Her foot caught something hard and she found herself tripping backwards, straight into the arms of…

_SAITOU!?_ her eyes snapped wide open as she stared up into narrowed, amber eyes.

"Get off me!" he snapped, shoving her roughly. She stumbled but managed to catch herself, all romantic notions of falling into the arms of one Shinomori Aoshi scrambling away to make space for the nausea she felt mounting. He had _touched_ her…!

"Detention," he barked. "For all three of you!"

"What?!" Sano and Misao yelled in unison. Kenshin just looked lost.

"Wait, Kenshin didn't even _do_ anything!" Misao sputtered, Sano steaming angrily behind her.

"The three of you are standing in the middle of the hallway, causing a huge ruckus I could hear from inside the classroom," he said calmly, gesturing towards the open door he had apparently come from. "I came out to check on you insolent fools and see ahou here—" at that he waved an arm vaguely in Sano's direction "—trying to punch you." He spun on his heel and started walking back into the classroom.

"That means rooster head and you owe me two detentions," he said without looking back. "Do _not_ be late."

-

"I swear, Kaoru, that crab faced bastard is out to get me!" It was lunch, and Misao and Kaoru were involved in a heated, mostly on-sided discussion about the school's most notorious history teacher.

"Well, you _did_ call him an ugly mongrel last year…" she said thoughtfully, taking a bite out of her casserole.

"Oh yeah…" Misao said, a grin spreading over her features as she recalled the memory. "I think I got a month's worth of detention for '_insubordinate behaviour_'. The look on his face was _priceless!_ (_It was worth it!_)"

"Why is it all our time seems to be spent discussing Hajime-sensei?" Kaoru asked, rolling her eyes. She did that a lot when it came to Misao. "If I didn't know better I'd say you were in love with the man!"

"Kaoru!" Misao exclaimed, shocked. "What… Blasphemy!"

"Well, girls don't talk about guys so much unless they _liked_ them!" Kaoru replied matter-of-factly.

"Yeah well," Misao said. "At least _I'm_ spending this afternoon with a certain red-head…" At that Kaoru blushed, but at the same time frowned angrily at the mischievous grin that had spread across the smaller girl's face. It was an open secret between the two of them that Kaoru was as crazy about Sano's best friend as Misao was about the newly transferred junior whom Kaoru secretly dubbed the 'Ice-block'.

"What, why?!" she demanded, gripping Misao's shoulders. "What happened!?" Laughing at her friend's reaction, Misao filled Kaoru in on what had happened earlier.

"Himura was just _standing_ there!" she said, grinning at the look of incensement that was slowly taking over the pretty features of Kaoru's red face.

"Why that no good…" Leaning back to enjoy Kaoru's participation in that afternoon's Saitou bashing, Misao laced her fingers behind her head and surveyed the crowded cafeteria. Sano, Kenshin and a bunch of juniors were sitting a few tables down. Sano was presently involved in some ridiculous stunt involving balancing a fishbone on his nose, and his friends were egging him on. Misao rolled her eyes. _Men._

Shifting her gaze further, she caught sight of Aoshi. He was sitting with four seniors, the only junior at the table. She vaguely wondered how he knew them when a shadow fell on their table and she looked up into the smoldering eyes of Takani Megumi.

"May I sit here?" she asked, slipping into the empty seat next to Misao without waiting for an answer. _Whoa, what's going on?_ Misao wondered, glancing over to the table Megumi had been sharing with a handsome, brown haired senior. He was glaring at them angrily, and crushing his can of coke, he stood up and walked out of the cafeteria.

"Whoa, bad break up?" she asked, watching his retreating back.

"You can say that," Megumi replied airily. Although a junior like themselves, Takani Megumi frequently hung out with what Misao always called the older crowd. Misao shared a couple of classes with her, namely Biology and Chemistry. The girl was a whiz at those subjects, and Misao was secretly envious of the pretty, popular girl. She had dated quite a few seniors, her latest conquest being Takeda Kanryuu.

"So, what went wrong?" Misao asked, biting into her muffin. Megumi threw her a cold look.

"What is this, 20 questions?" she huffed, grabbing her tray as if to leave.

"Oh, no!" Kaoru cut in, glaring at Misao. "I'm sorry about her, she tends to annoy people. Stay, we're sorry if we offended you, we didn't mean to pry. Well, I didn't anyway, and who cares what Misao thinks." _Hey!_

"…" Megumi looked hesitant, and then settle back in her seat, accepting Kaoru's explanation. "I'm Takani Megumi, by the way."

"Yeah I know, we have a few classes together," Misao said between bites. Megumi watched her in disdain as crumbs flew out of her mouth. "I'm Misao."

"And I'm Kaoru," she said, hurriedly sticking her hand out to Megumi. Megumi took the offered hand and shook it gracefully. "What classes do you have next?"

"Hmm? Oh, I'm having History, what a drag," Megumi replied.

"Ah, that crab faced bastard teaching you?" Misao nodded knowingly. Megumi laughed.

"Is that what you call him?" she said, smiling for the first time at Misao.

"Yeah," she replied, grinning. "And an ugly mongrel, that got me a month of detention."

"Oh, wow, in his face too, this girl's got guts," Megumi said, nodding in approval and a hint of admiration. Misao blushed at the compliment.

"Aw, shucks," she said. Kaoru gave her a puzzled look. "What? It's not every day I receive a compliment from one of the most popular girls at school!" It was Megumi's turn to turn a light shade of pink. Dropping her head she started eating her salad in silence.

"Misao!" Kaoru chided, laughing. "You've managed to offend our guest _twice_ in the span of five minutes!"

"What, I said she was popular, and she is, she's pretty _and_ smart!" Misao replied defensively. "That's not offensive!"

At that moment Megumi cleared her throat, deciding to interrupt them before the loud-mouthed girl embarrassed her any further, and asked, "So, what do _you_ have after lunch Misao?"

"Math," she groaned, bringing her hand to her forehead. "My absolute _worst_ subject ever, I think it should be abolished, I hate Tuesdays."

"Misao, I think abolished is only used when in conjuncture with a law," Kaoru said. "And in any case, it's not that bad, you're just lazy."

"Whatever, Miss Honour Roll," Misao shot back. "We can't all be perfect students like you!"

"You're on the honour roll?" Megumi asked, turning to the blushing girl.

"N—I mean, well, yes," she admitted, looking down at her plate.

"That's something to be proud of," she said, smiling gently. "I tried to get on the Honour Roll in my first year and gave up because it was too much effort."

"Thank you," Kaoru said quietly, cheeks aflame. Misao laughed.

"I could _never _be on the Honour Roll," she said. "Aside from my crappy grades, that Saitou has been on my ass since year one! In fact I have detention today with him, along with that loser—" she jerked a thumb in Sano's direction "—and his friend, the red-head."

"Oh, those guys, huh?" Megumi said, immediately perking up. Misao followed her gaze to realize it rested on Kenshin, who at that moment was trying to dislodge something Sano had gotten stuck in his throat. _Uh-oh…_

"Tell me, Misao," she said, resting a perfectly manicured hand on Misao's. "Who _is_ that cute red-head?"

"Cute…?" Misao blinked. Kenshin was such a sissy! "You mean Himura? Oh, but you can't like him, he's—oof!" Kaoru's foot had stomped right onto Misao's, and the sudden action had snapped Misao's jaw right into her tongue. She glared at Kaoru, who explained smoothly to a confused Megumi that Misao had 'issues' about guys who weren't 'tall dark and handsome'. That shut her up, and only then did it occur to her that she had almost let Kaoru's secret out. _Baka!_

"Ah, I see…" Megumi said, leaning towards Misao and giving her a knowing smile. "So, who do _you _think is cute, Misao?" She choked, and could feel her cheeks catching fire.

"N—no one!" she chirped, and started studying her fruit juice intently. Megumi giggled, and turned to Kaoru.

"So," she said, winking. "Is he taken?"

"Erm…" Kaoru replied, shifting nervously. "Not that I know of."

"Good," Megumi said, smiling in satisfaction. "I think I may just get myself into detention today." Standing up, she winked at the two girls, who looked distinctly uncomfortable.

"Thanks for lunch today girls," she said. "I had fun." They watched helplessly as she sailed through the cafeteria, 'accidentally' bumping into the back of Kenshin, who turned around and started sputtering apologies which she dismissed with a wave of her hand. They continued to watch as, giving him a foxy grin, she and leaned in close and whisper something into his ear, making him blush. Beside her Kaoru groaned.

"Misaaoo… This is all your fault!!"

* * *

**Author's Rants (12th August 2007) :**

Surprised?! I wanted to stay clear from too many clichés (yes, I know just writing this fic is a cliché all on it's own but I don't care) so that's why I refrained from dumping Misao straight into the arms of Aoshi (believe me, the temptation was there) when she trips, haha, surprised you huh! I want to keep things nice and fresh, without being too predictable. There are a million and one AU AM fics like this, so I wanted to make it something different and special. Hopefully that turns out alright.

I know, there are already a million clichés in the story, and already a lot of things aren't really working out very well, as mentioned in my previous ran, like why the hell are Japanese students studying The Catcher in the Rye. Hopefully, you as the reader will suspend your belief for a moment and just pretend it all makes sense okay? I personally didn't quite like the book (hence the title, I hope this doesn't lose me my readers!) because all the 'goddamns' really put me off right from the start too much for me to properly enjoy it. I probably will try and work the Catcher in the Rye into the storyline a wee bit more.

I kinda only chose it because, well, it's the one so called classic that comes readily to mind that I've actually read all of despite not quite liking it (my boyfriend liked it, which was why I was convinced to read it, although a few months later he came up to me and said 'actually, the story was kinda pointless', as which I laughed and promptly rubbed it in his face). Also, it happens to be on my shelf above my bed—which is where sit to write on my laptop—so it's easily accessible for quotations and references. It's actually a bit of a MacGuffin, i.e. (quoting the Wikipedia) _a __plot device__ that motivates the characters and/or advances the story, but has little other relevance to the story… it is not important what the object __specifically is._

Anyway, I actually finished this chapter two days ago, but am only (Sunday evening 12th August 2007) writing this rant now, makes it feel more complete, in my mind anyway. At this moment I just finished the next chapter, damn I'm addicted to writing when I should be studying for my exam in two days! Only gonna post this most probably this Wednesday, 15th August 2007 though, can't wait for your reviews!

**(13th August 2007) :**

Okay so I couldn't wait to post this up. Haha, since so far it seems like people are actually reading it, and I'm already about 80 through with Chapter 4, I decided I'll post this a bit early! The story WILL pick up, I promise, so far I quite like how this fic is turning out. Stay tuned for more, I think I'll be posting Chapter 3 on Sunday, August 19th. Or I may post a liittle bit earlier, at least, if the response is good. C'mon people, review it more! I know you're reading it, haha...


	3. Chapter 3

**I Don't Like The Catched in the Rye**

**Author's Notes: **Now, I don't like starting a chapter with Author's Notes, but for this chapter I'm making in exception. I got a complaint about my little note on **_kohai _**being put in the middle of the chapter, which I did because, well, FFN doesn't allow footnotes or for text to be made smaller. I'm gonna go through it briefly here, so later when ya come across it you won't be confused by the reaction it causes, in case ya don't know what it means.

Kohai (as extracted from the Wikipedia): 

_"Senpai is a Japanese term (sometimes an honorific) for a person in a club or other organization, including a school or college, who is a senior (in other words, a member for longer or of a higher year) and mutually recognized as such. The junior counterpart is called kōhai._

_…In a Japanese school sports club, such as a baseball team, the kōhai are **usually expected to perform various menial tasks for the senpai, **including washing clothes and cleaning. The kōhai may not be allowed to play the sport at all or have only limited opportunities to do so until they become senpai._

_More than simple seniority, senpai implies a relationship with reciprocal obligations, somewhat similar to a mentoring relationship. **A kōhai is expected to respect and obey their senpai**, and the senpai in turn must guide, protect, and teach their kōhai as best they can. Senpai/kōhai relationships generally last for as long as the two people concerned stay in contact, even if the original context in which the senpai was senior is no longer relevant."_

End of Kohai description

Now, on with the story:

**_Chapter 3_**

Detention hall. After two dreadful hours of mathematics ("…Find an approximate value for the limit of _B_ as _n_ approaches infinity by considering an appropriate graph and—") she absolutely welcomed the thought of sitting around doing nothing. Mathematics made her head hurt—it didn't help that she had absolutely _no_ idea what was going on. Eventually after trying to pay attention for the first ten minutes she had zoned out and ended up playing with her pencil.

When she eventually got bored of that, she amused herself by doodling on the table, only to get threatened with detention by Kisaragi-sensei ("Writing 'Maths sucks big time' on your desk is _not_ going to improve those failing grades, Makimachi-san") and forced to write the answer to a question on the board. _Without_ help. After forcing her back to her seat ("Will you _stop_ randomly dividing and multiplying numbers! That is _not_ a graph and the trapezium rule is _not_ a proclamation of the trapezium's superiority over the square!"), Kisaragi-sensei had slapped her with an additional 5 pages of homework to do, saying she should be glad it wasn't detention and resumed teaching, though she did so rather crossly.

She was on her way to her locker to drop off her books when she bumped into Megumi, who all but dragged her to the classroom.

"Gee, Megumi," Misao said as she stumbled after the taller girl, who unfortunately happened to have hold of her elbow. Since when were they all buddy-buddy? "Saitou's on duty Tuesdays, I hate him and all but it's not like I'm gonna skip it (I've done it before), I'm not _that_ much of an idiot."

"Hurry up," Megumi said impatiently. "I don't want to spend any less time than I have to with Ken-san and since you're the only person I know in detention you have to sit with me."

"Huh, Ken-san?" Misao echoed. The events at lunch slowly came back to haunt her and she stared at the back of Megumi's head in horror… _Did she really…! _"You mean _Himura_?"

"Yes, yes," Megumi replied, not really listening to her. "Is this the room? This is the first time I've been to detention, so I wouldn't know." Misao nodded numbly, allowing herself to be dragged into the still empty room. _Oh no… Kaoru is going to KILL me! This is not happening to me…_

"Since you know Ken-san," Megumi said, finally letting go of Misao's arm as the dazed girl sank into the chair next to Megumi. Somewhere at the back of her head, she wondered what Megumi did to get herself into detention. "You can tell me more about him, and I'll even let your introduce me to him." She flashed Misao a pearly white grin.

"I don't normally need someone to introduce me," she said, striking a pose. "I mean, I do have beauty, confident and sex appeal, after all—" Misao face faulted "—but Ken-san seems to be the shy, quiet type so if you introduce me it'll probably be less awkward for him, and when the time comes he'll thank you for introducing one of the most popular girls in school to him. Oh ho ho ho…" (_Are those fox ears??)_

"Erm, gee, thanks Megumi," Misao said nervously. "You see, the thing is…"

"Are you refusing my favour?" Megumi demanded, her head snapping forward.

"N-no!" Misao replied hastily. (_I wouldn't dare!_)

"Good," she said, dismissing Misao as she sat back in her chair and started adjusting her make up. _Oh no… What am I going to do?_ Misao frantically wondered. _If I don't help her, I'll have one of the most popular girls in the school on my back, but if I do, Kaoru will _kill_ me! Well… What Kaoru doesn't know wouldn't—_

"Oi! Weasel! Who's the foxy mama you have there!"

"What the hell rooster!" Misao yelled back without thinking. "Who the hell still says foxy mama?!"

"Indeed," Megumi added, snapping her compact close as she looked up. "I can see you're a _real_ ladies' man." Block-headed and dense as he could be, even Sano couldn't miss the sarcasm dripping from her voice.

"Excuse me? I'll have you know that last night I—mmf?!"

"I-I don't think that's information you would want to divulge in with a pretty girl such as herself, de gozaru!" covering his mouth just in time, Kenshin had appeared seemingly out of no where and happened to hear the end of the conversation. Not that any conversation with Sano would have been hard to overhear.

"Ken-san!" Megumi exclaimed. "What a surprise!" Misao rolled her eyes. As if. So much for letting _her _introduce Himura to her. Not that she minded, in fact she was _glad_ she was not forced into in a way betraying her best friend, but it _did _bug her that the girl could forget her promise so quickly once in the presence of another guy. Maybe that was why she didn't seem to have many girlfriends.

_This girl drops her friends like hot potatoes,_ Misao thought, tuning out Megumi's gushing over Kenshin, who looked incredibly confused ("Erm, s-sorry miss have we met before, de gozaru?"). _I would NEVER do such a thing! Well, actually no guy has ever asked me out, so I guess there isn't really any way I can test out that theory._

Mildly depressed by that thought, Misao was snapped out of her mulling and back to the present by the entrance of Saitou, who cast Sano a disgusted glance ("Ahou.") before sitting behind the teacher's desk. A couple more students trickled in, and Saitou addressed them.

"Now, shut up, sit down, and stay that way for the next two hours," he said, propping his foot on his desk and lighting a cigarette. "That means _you_, rooster head."

"I hope one day he _burns_ his damn face," Sano muttered, sinking into the seat next to Misao. Megumi had all but dragged Kenshin across the room, away from Misao, and was asking him quietly questions about himself. Occasionally her giggle would float across the room, earning her a glare from Saitou and, oddly enough, Sano.

Misao studied the Sano, who did not seem to realize he was watching the couple intently. _Surely not…_

"You have a _crush_ on her don't you!" she squealed excitedly, jabbing Sano in the ribs. Jumping in his seat, Sano scowled at her, rubbing the spot where she prodded. Saitou narrowed his eyes at them, and Megumi paused her interrogation of Kenshin to give them an annoyed look.

"What are you _talking_ about you dumb weasel," Sano whispered angrily. Misao gave Saitou a sweet smile, and he was so puzzled by that look he literally recoiled in his seat and started marking the stack of papers on his desk. "I'm annoyed because that she-devil just stole Kenshin from me and now I'm left to deal with you alone!" He sounded convincing enough, and Misao would almost have been inclined to believe him—if not for the faint pinkish tinge that was slowly creeping into his cheeks.

"Liar!" she whispered back. "You're blushing!" She was rewarded with a further reddening of his face.

"Sano has a cru-ush, Sano has a cru-ush!" she sang gleefully.

"I do _not_ have a crush," he replied angrily, whipping his head to the front and propping his feet on the desk, crossing his arms and staring stoically to the front. "_Especially_ not on that damn fox devil. Dumb kid…"

Giggling to herself, Misao rested her head on her desk so that she was facing Sano.

"I'll let that one slide," she whispered conspiringly. "Cause if there's anyone who can help you get Megumi, it's me." In spite of himself, Sano turned his head a fraction towards Misao, trying and not entirely succeeding at keeping the interest off his face.

"You sound pretty damn sure of yourself, weasel," he said, quirking an eyebrow. "Why's that?"

"_Weasel_?" she bristled, sitting up and glaring at him. "I just may reconsider helping you, you big dumb oaf."

"Geez, touché," he said, throwing his hands up in the air. "Fine, fine, how exactly are you going to achieve that, Makimachi-kohai."

"_Kohai!_" she screeched under her breath. "Forget it, you're not worth my time."

"Aww, c'mon," Sano said, reaching over and patting her head. "You know I mean it in a _good_ way."

"Whatever Sano," she said huffily, slapping his hand away. "Don't come crying to me when all your attempts at winning her over fail! (You think you're such a charmer, geez!)"

"Pfft, I don't need you! (What, I am!)" he replied. "And I'm not interested in that fox, look at her, she's all over the wrong man!" They shared a glance at Megumi, who was laughing hysterically at something Kenshin had said. Kenshin himself looked more embarrassed than proud, and looked like he would do anything to get out of his current predicament.

"Right," she said after a long pause. "Anyway, do you want my help or not?"

"What makes you so sure _you_ can help me?" Sano narrowed his eyes at her.

"_Because_, Sanosuke no baka," she said, heaving a great sigh of exaggerated patience. "_I _happen to be the only person she knows who knows Ken-san, I mean, Himura—aside from Kaoru-chan that is. And we have Biology and Chemistry classes together. No doubt during those two periods she will come and try and find out as much about Himura as possible. _And_ she trusts me (_at least I think she does_), somehow or another we're buddy buddy now, so you just work on making sure Himura doesn't accept her advances quite yet, and I'll find out for you what kinda guy she likes so you can earn her affection!"

"What makes you think she won't like me the way I am right now," he said, frowning. He looked at her suspiciously. "And why are you being so helpful? You hate me."

"I don't _hate _hate you, like the way I hate Saitou," she replied, slightly annoyed that he kept questioning her motives. Keeping Kaoru's secret was _way_ harder than she thought it would be. "I just can't stand the thought of my dear rooster head here, heart broken as his unrequited love is thrown back into his face as some girl forces herself on an unwilling Himura! Who then will I have to make fun of and beat up?!"

"Wouldn't getting her to fall for me make her unwilling too?" he pressed, unwilling to drop the subject. "And who says I love her?"

"Sano!" she cried, throwing her hands up in exasperation. Why was he choosing _now_ to use that stupid pea brain of his?

"Will the two of you shut the hell up!" Saitou snapped irritably from his desk. Their mouths snapped dutifully shut, and for once Misao was glad for his intervention. She stuck her tongue out at Sano, and started doodling absent-mindedly in her notebook, hoping a plan to get Sanosuke and Megumi together would scheme its way into her head.

She was snapped out of her plotting when a crushed ball of paper landed in front of her on her desk, narrowly missing her nose. She stole a glance at Sano, who was looking at her from the corner of his eyes, and opened the letter. Written in messy, horrible handwriting were the words "_I know why you want to help me_".

She wrote back "_Why???_" and threw it back. She watched as he wrote something on the paper and threw it back, and eagerly opened the crushed ball of paper.

"WHAT?!" she screeched.

"For the last time!" Saitou growled, slamming his fist on the table. Misao gulped and tried to look as repentant as possible.

"Sorry," she said meekly. "Won't happen again." He glowered at her before resuming his marking.

"I do _not _have a crush on Himura you dumbass," she hissed at Sano, who was laughing tears to his eyes.

"Why else would you be so eager to stop that fox from digging her claws in?" he said, grinning smugly.

"I'll have you know the guy I have a crush on _isn't_ Himura," she whispered fiercely, feeling a brief flash of satisfaction as the ball of paper bounced off his head. "He's so much cooler than that sissy boy."

"Oh really?" Sano said, his interested piqued. "Who's the unfortunate guy?"

"Not telling you," she said in annoyance, crossing her arms and lifting her head haughtily. Well, at least he stopped asking _why _she was helping him.

"Aww, c'mon weasel," he pleaded. He gave her a wicked grin. "Promise I won't tell!"

"As if!" she said, rolling her eyes. "We both know you can't keep a secret with that big mouth of yours."

"Hey, I can if I really wanted to," he said, looking wounded. "Now you're hurting my feelings."

"You know I'm not," she snapped. "I'm not telling you and that's final." Resting her head on the table, she turned away from Sano and closed her eyes, ignoring his pleading and whining until eventually he gave up and spent the rest of detention carving obscenities onto the desk.

**

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****Disclaimer: _I don't own any of the characters that appear in this fic. Nobuhiro Watsuki does. There, I've got this over and done with._**

**Posted: 18th August 2007**

**Author's ****Rants ( Sunday 12****th**** August 2007 - one day before I posted chapter 2, the previous chapter ) :**

Wow, this scene turned ended up being a lot longer than I thought it would. I originally meant for the detention scene to only take up half of this chapter, but I started writing it and, well… Anyway, I actually have no clue what I'm going to do to get Sano and Megumi together, if they end up together at all. I originally intended for the standard couples, but I dunno, hee, I may just screw around with them, just to mess with ya'll.

It's really really tempting to post all three chapters up, to see what people's comments are. So far I've gotten two reviews for the first chapter (thanks a lot guys! I feel quite honoured that Silver Miko would read and review my work, I've read quite a bit of your work but never got around to reviewing them, I will after my exams!) and I'm determined to stick to my plan of posting chapter 2 on Wednesday. We'll see how well me resolve holds. One reason I'm avoiding posting too many at once is because I don't want the gap between chapters be too long, because I'm trying to discipline myself to at _least _one chapter a week, and who knows when my enthusiasm at writing will die, or I get stuck with plot.

Another reason is that tomorrow (13th August, Monday) I have an exam (Principles of Accounting, I'm studying for a diploma in Business Administration and am in my first year), which SHOULD be fine, but _next _Monday I have my Economics paper, and I've not been to a single lecture (or on the rare occasion I _am_ there, I never listen because I'm busy rushing a report, and when I _do _try and listen, I understand nothing and just copy blindly, or start playing my boyfriend's PSP) since our first test, which was 8 topics ago. In other words, I have one week to learn what they taught us in approximately 2 months. So I guess you can say I'm in a bit of a pickle haha.

Anyway, comments and criticism greatly appreciated, I'd like to know if you think the detention scene was too long and draggy with unnecessary dialogue (although given the fact that you _don't _know what I intend for the fic it'll be a pretty hard judgement call). All reviews are welcome, thanks again for reading this. :)

**( Saturday 18th August 2007 - written as I'm posting this ) :**

Good news for all of you reading this, I updated! It's a Saturday right now, and I know I said I'd post it on Sunday, but studying isn't quite going as planned (or, not going is a better term to describe it) and I ended up finishing Chapter 4 and half of chapter 5 in one afternoon, so ah to hell with my earlier resolve. Since my last exam is in two days, I figured I'd have plenty of time to write after that so posting this chapter up a day early should be fine. I've also decided to start writing the date which I posted this fic, so that my rants will make more sense chronologically, as well as tag my rant dates so that you know when it was written, i.e. the day before I posted, the day I posted, etc.

For those who care, my accounting test (which I had after my previous Author's Rant) went so-so. Couldn't balance the damn balance sheet, ugh, hope I can still get an A... Oh, yeah, and I plan on updating Chapter 4 on Wednesday (chances are I'll update earlier), so stay tuned my friends!


	4. Chapter 4

**I Don't Like The Catcher in the Rye**

**_Chapter 4 _**

Makimachi Misao was depressed.

Three days had passed since that fateful detention session, and it seemed within that short span of time, her life had somehow been turned upside down without her actually being involved in the process.

Attempts to get Megumi off Kenshin's trail were, quite bluntly, failing. Nothing Misao did or said—from subtle hints that Sano was always considered the more attractive and manly of the two friends to not so subtle speculation that Himura was gay—would deter the girl from that sissy man. Furthermore Megumi was starting to get suspicious.

"Misao-chan," Megumi had finally, in Biology lab the following day, interrupted a spirited re-enactment of one of Sano's so-called 'finer moments'. "Why are you doing this?"

"T-this?" Misao had replied nervously. "What this?"

"You know what I'm talking about," Megumi had said coolly, narrowing her eyes. "Trying to throw that rooster head at me. Is this some kind of a joke, because it's not funny."

"What, me, no! Never!" Misao had exclaimed. She rolled her eyes. "It's just that Himura is, well… He's kind of a wuss, I just wouldn't want you to lose your rep by going out with the wrong guy." _Good one Makimachi!_

"Well I like him," Megumi had said huffily. "Stop trying to convince me otherwise because it's _not_ happening." She refused to talk to Misao for the remainder of the lab, breaking the silence between them when absolutely necessary (Megumi had hunted Misao down as a lab partner, something she seemed to have sorely regretted doing).

Lunch—the period before Biology lab—had been worse. Because Megumi and Misao shared a Chemistry class before lunch, they had gone to the cafeteria together after class, meeting Kaoru—who did not take Chemistry—on the way. Misao had squirmed awkwardly as Megumi gushed over 'Ken-san' on one side, and Kaoru glared daggers at her from the other.

Things finally reached the breaking point when Sano had appeared at their table, Kenshin by his side. Grinning roguishly at Megumi, he had sat himself promptly at the table, ignoring Misao's objections and glares. Kenshin had had no choice but to follow suit.

Kaoru had abruptly stood up, saying she saw a girl from the Student's Union she needed to discuss some important thing with, and spent the remainder of lunch eating and talking animatedly with a pretty, dark haired girl across the cafeteria.

Misao spent lunch listening to Megumi laugh loudly at anything Kenshin said, while Sano bugged Misao to tell him who her crush was.

Thursday and Friday's lunch were pretty much the same. Megumi, Kenshin, Sanosuke and Misao ate together, while Kaoru had lunch with the pretty girl again. Misao kept glancing in her direction miserably. On the rare occasion that their eyes met, Kaoru would stare angrily at her, direct her gaze at Megumi and Kenshin, then toss her head haughtily and look away.

Meanwhile, Megumi and Kenshin were basically off in their own, Megumi-induced world. The end result was for two lunches in a row, Misao had only the teasing of Sano to keep her company as he had moved from bugging her to spilling the beans, to speculating who it was that 'the little weasel' was in love with in an effort to make something slip.

The only good thing that came out of this whole fiasco, Misao concluded, was that she had been too exhausted by everything that had been going on to get into trouble. Now, walking alone to her last class for the week (History), she was looking forward to a couple of days away from school. She grinned widely. She never thought she would say this, but now, _all_ she had to do was survive an hour of Saitou and she would be home free!

After all the drama that had transpired over the past few days, the thought of going home to a nice, well deserved break put her in such a good mood even the thought of being in the same room as that ass could not bring her down. For once, she had managed to clear all her detentions, and she was looking forward to soccer practice later that day—if there was one thing she needed, it was to vent all her frustrations, and what better way to do it than to spend an afternoon running and kicking!

She entered the almost empty classroom, a glance at the clock telling her she was uncommonly early. Her last class had been English, which had been a sad, lonely affair. Kaoru sat in front of her refusing to talk to her, and Sano spent the whole period whispering to her about all sorts of weird, geeky, dorky guys she had not known even _existed _until that moment. She had rushed out of English class and went straight to the History classroom, nearly knocking over a surprised Kaoru in her haste.

She took a seat two rows from the back and groaned. Stretching lazily, she started rocking her chair backwards, balancing on the back two legs. It was a bad habit of hers, but she liked the feeling and refused to stop even though Kaoru had told her one day she was going to fall and 'break that thick skull of yours.'

_Yeah right, Kaoru,_ Misao thought, rolling her eyes. In all her years as a backwards chair rocker, she had never even come _close_ to nearly—

"Whoa!" she cried, as she felt her chair suddenly being pulled roughly back. "Oh shi—" Quite abruptly, she stopped her descent, her chair (and head) inches away from the ground. She looked up into the grinning face of Sano.

"SANOSUKE NO BAKA WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!" she screeched. Without thinking she leaped straight out of her chair, jumping at him with every intention to tackle him to the ground, tables and chairs around them be damned. Still laughing, he deftly moved out of the way and she found herself sailing through a graceful arc, airborne and helpless, heading straight for—

_Aoshi-kun!_ Her eyes widening in terror, she twisted her body to the side in a desperate attempt to avoid him. Their eyes meet, his cool and emotionless eyes widening slightly as he freezes, halfway into the seat next to hers. She shut her eyes.

_CRASH!!!_

Pain lanced through most of her left side as she pretty much bowled him over. They fell to the floor, her momentum carrying him, the table, and the chair he had been in the process of sitting into smashing to the ground.

"What the hell is going on?" Misao groaned. This was _not _happening to her! Not only did she manage to totally knock over her crush of the century, it had been witnessed by the last person she wanted ever to see—that damn bastard Saitou!

She untangled herself from the mess of legs (human and furniture) and stood up. Shyly, she offered a hesitant hand to Aoshi, who ignored it and got up, his face a mask as he dusted himself off. She could feel her face flaming up, and she ducked as she moved to help upright the fallen table and chair.

"Detention for the both of you," Saitou said casually, walking to his desk. A half-gone cigarette dangled from his lips. "Makimachi pull yourself together and sit _down_."

Too embarrassed to even argue, Misao simply sat down and stared at her desk quietly. Kaoru had come in just around the time Saitou had, and Misao had caught sight of her questioning look as she took the table to her left, but refused to meet her curious gaze.

"Now that the weasel girl has settled down," Saitou drawled, snubbing out his cigarette on the teacher's desk. "We shall begin our lesson today."

Misao snuck a glance at Aoshi, who had already taken out his History textbook and was taking down notes in the margins of the text. He seemed unfazed by both the detention _and _the crash. Was this guy made of flesh or what?

She sighed, taking her own book out to read. What had happened to the Aoshi-sama (she vaguely marveled at the honorific coming naturally to her) she once knew? True, he had never been the most emotional or talkative of people, but deep down he was kind and gentle. She knew the old Aoshi would have at least _reacted _to the trouble little Misao-chan had landed in yet again with her silly antics. True, he had not smiled once that she could recall, search as she may through her childhood memories. But he had _responded, _or at the very least said _something_.

She remembered the first day she saw him, after all those years. It had been—

_Advanced English class, the last period of the day. Misao stretched her stiff muscles. She had a natural flair for languages ("That's cause you use it more than any one else, Misao-chan," Kaoru liked to tease) and was in both Advanced English and Advanced Japanese class. Class had yet to begin and already she was bored!_

_She looked around for something to amuse herself with, but since Sano could barely recite the alphabet, let alone qualify to be in a class that taught a higher level of English, she was out of things to make fun of. Most of the kids in Advanced English were the quiet, book worm type, and while she knew most of their names, she never got along very well with them. They were usually too quiet or shy to say anything and after several minutes holding up a one-sided conversation, Misao had eventually given up__. Himura was also in Advanced English, but she did not see him anywhere, so she settled for writing fake love poems on her desk._

Komagata-sensei is late_, Misao thought irritably. Advanced English class in itself was actually quite alright—for something academically inclined. Komagata Yumi, the language teacher, held interesting lessons. She was very young, and also very pretty. She favoured form fitting clothes that bordered on inappropriate though, and sometimes Misao found herself staring enviously at her curvaceous body. _What I'd give to grow a set of boobs like that…

_At that moment, Yumi strolled into the classroom, her __4-inch, red stiletto pumps clicking loudly over the classroom floor. Misao's speculation over how anyone could walk in those ridiculously tall and flimsy heels was cut short by the tall, handsome young man who followed her in. She all but ogled at the new arrival, whose long, jet-black hair cast most of his face in shadow._

"_Class," Yumi-sensei said (she insisted they called her that since she was still so young, although Misao silently regarded her as Komagata-sensei out of spite and jealousy), gesturing for everyone to settle down. _"_We have a new student joining our class__—joining our school, actually, right, Aoshi-kun?" At the name, Misao froze, her heart leaping to her throat. Aoshi…?_

_Misao studied the new studen__t—who nodded silently—with different eyes. The hair was the same raven colour, as was the smooth curves of his lips, his mouth set in an impassive line._

"_Ah," Yumi-sensei said, giving the tall student a meaningful smile _(Is she FLIRTING with him?!)_. "Class, this is Shinomori Aoshi. Take a seat Aoshi-kun."_

_Wordlessly, he started walking down the aisle, towards an empty desk at the end of Misao's row. She looked up at him unabashedly, staring. Their eyes met as he neared her desk, and Misao felt a shiver run down her spine. They were the exact same shade of azure grey she had spent many a childhood days gazing into with admiration and love. She thought she saw a flicker of recognition—so brief and fleeting later on she was not sure if she had imagined it—in those steel blue orbs._

_The greeting__ died on her parted lips as he blinked slowly and deliberately—while his eyes shut smoothly turning his head up and towards the back of the classroom—breaking the connection. He swept past her desk as if she were a stranger. She blinked. It had happened so fast, already Yumi-sensei was writing something on the board—_

"Ack!" Misao yelped, clutching her face. "What the hell?!" Snapped out of her memories, she realized that the whole class—to her chagrin Aoshi included—was looking at her. The imprint of a large, rectangular object was slowly reddening across her nose and cheeks, flecked with a small dark spots. She glared at Saitou, who returned her killer gaze with one of indifference.

"Now that we have the weasel's attention," he drawled lazily. "We can only hope she will answer the questions I have directed towards her." _Question? _"Write your answer on the board so you can return the whiteboard duster to the front."

She blinked as she looked down. The offending object was, indeed, on the floor, a short distance to her right—at the foot of Aoshi's chair. Blushing, she reached over to pick it up. Numbly, she saw another hand reach down to pick it up, as if in slow motion. Her eyes travelled up the arm, disbelief taking over her as she looked into the eyes of the person she found herself thinking about nearly every waking second. Their gazes held for a second, and she felt something being pressed into her outstretched hand.

Blinking stupidly, she looked down and saw the duster in her palm. She looked back up, and Aoshi was facing the front, unruffled. She blinked again, wondering if she had just imagined the exchanged. She looked back down at the duster—the only indication that the last few moments had occurred—it's soft, reassuring weight in her hand.

"Are you _done _day-dreaming?" Saitou snapped irritably. "You're especially dull-witted today. Get your ass to the front and write the answer on the board!"

"I'm _coming!_"

**

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****Disclaimer: _I don't own Rurouni Kenshin, or any of the characters that appear. The sole exception would be the teacher who appears in Chapter 1, I know, I should be putting this there but I can't be bothered to hah!_**

**Posted: 22nd August 2007**

**Author's ****Rants (18****th**** August 2007 - Saturday, Chapter 2 was posted up on this day ) :**

This chapter is awfully short, or at least, it is slightly shorter than the other chapters by about a hundred words (chapter 1 was the longer at slightly more than 2,700 words, the other two are about 2,200), you know you're obsessed when you find yourself checking the length of every chapter to ensure each chapter is about the same length. I'm sorry about that, it's just impossible to fit any more into this chapter without it getting too long. It was incredibly easy and fun to write, although finishing it off was tough. I know, it's mean of me to leave ya'll with such a cliffhanger, haha, but I blame technology. I also don't know how it relates to this. Anyway, thanks for all the support guys :) I'm especially honoured that Silver Miko has read my fic, hee, I've read a LOT of your fics and I really admire your work! Sorry bout not reviewing and stuff, I'll try to get back and review after my exams k.

Speaking of which, my exams are nearly over, my last paper is in 3 days (ugh I need to study instead of write) and possibly you'll see more updating soon after. I've re-watched all the anime episodes worth watching, and read a lot of the manga, just to get a better feel for the characters' personalities and the way they talk. Who am I kidding, RK rocks, I don't need an excuse to re-watch and re-read it, haha.

Anyway, hopefully conversation will be less stunted in the next few chapters, I'm not very happy with my dialogue because I feel it's very awkward, totally not smooth and absolutely not witty or funny, the way I'd imagine they should be. I guess I have a lot of growing to do as a writer, and I hope you'll put up with it, at least until I get better. All comments and criticism welcome, I'd rather you flame me than praise me, seriously, I truly want to get better as a writer, both in the content and in the writing itself.

Anyway, I have a vague idea of where I want this fic to go, now the only problem is _getting_ it there. While I have a hazy outline of the distant future, it's the immediate future that I draw a total blank at, namely, what will happen during Misao's detention with Aoshi. In there, there's only one or two details in which I'm certain of, so I guess you can say that I'm reading the story as much as you all are, only _I_ get to have a story that I totally approve of, haha… Well actually that's not true also…

So much for keeping this short. Right now, it's in the early hours of Saturday (4am actually) and I just spent 3 hours reading the translated manga. I'm downloading the full thing, because I lost my manga (yeah, such a shame right, I had the FULL set, albeit in Chinese and since I got an F for that, reading it is a bitch so I just end up looking at translations anyway or relying on my memory) and all I have are parts of it in Japanese (I'm not obsessed with RK) and volumes 22 and 23 in English (my school library has them so I borrowed them, cool huh).

I also have volumes 24 and part of 25 already downloaded, but I realized if I kept downloading the books individually it wouldn't work because the connections kept dying, or certain chapters couldn't be downloaded, you know, the usual problems with downloading stuff illegally (but I do plan on buying the full manga—probably in Japanese because I'm trying to self-learn it—so it's not exactly illegal).

I also happened to read Hikaru's rant against AU fics, which you can find at her website which is angelic-strawberries dot net slash blog slash (what, FFN won't allow links…) it's like, the second post. Personally, I have nothing against AU fic, I like it because I'm such a sucker for high-school romances, but she does have a point that most people don't really describe what or why the characters are as such, although it doesn't bug me anyway because I usually just suspend my belief so I can enjoy the romance.

Anyway, I'm glad that I don't feel that I fall into that category, because I'm a sucker for details. I hate things not making sense, like if in one scene they're in the bedroom, and then suddenly it's written they're in the kitchen without any letting the reader know they actually transitioned to that, etc, so you can expect me to go to great lengths to explain why every one is a certain way (i.e. if Kenshin happens to be a whiz at a sword, I'd fit in a logical explanation to it that isn't hopefully too clichéd or improbable). Furthermore, because it's an AU, I understand that certain things are definitely going to change, but I'm not sure how different I'm willing to go. But I DO hope that the essence of each character remains true, and any comments on the job I'm doing would be great.

Of course, I do realize I'm guilty of one thing, which is placing the characters in an environment I know next to nothing about except from what I've read. Fortunately, I had long ago realized that myself, and had decided to ignore it and try and fit it in as logically and as smoothly as possible, without making it too 'out there'. So think of this as a sort of AU in modern times, only not quite in a proper, Japanese or American school culture but rather a fusion, as I'd already mentioned earlier. If things don't make sense, or if I make any mistakes, comments and criticism are gladly welcome.

Again, thank you for the support. I'm going to end the Author's Rants here, if not I'm going to go on forever. I have an annoying habit of loving to talk about myself, so if you've managed to read up until this line then thanks for bearing with me. I'm going to sleep now, I've got a bit of a headache since I've been up since 10am and out from then till about 12am (although I did get a 3 hour nap in between with my beloved boyfriend/husband/technically he should be my fiancé, hee snuggle). While waiting for sleep to come, I shall try and think of what will happen next k, till then, bye bye!

**( 22 August 2007 - Written while posting ) :**

I know this rant is ridiculously long, but I just wanna say hah! I updated when I said I would, and hah! You guys are lucky, I almost forgot to post haha... Chapter 5 is about half done by e way, whoo! Not too sure how I'm gonna continue though, oh well, we'll see...


	5. Chapter 5

**I Don't Like The Catcher in the Rye**

**_Chapter 5 _**

Why was it so much of her life seemed to revolve around this stupid, tiny, horribly god-forsaken classroom? It was dingy and smelly and _gross_.

Cursing under her breath, Misao followed Saitou into detention hall, Aoshi by her side. He had taken it upon himself to personally escort the two of them to detention. Sitting behind the teacher's desk was a pleasant looking female teacher, who looked up in surprise at Saitou's entrance.

"Oh, hello, Hajime-san, Misao-chan, you're back again… Eh, Aoshi-kun?" she said, looking at him in surprise. "Did you get yourself into trouble? That is so unlike you!" Saitou glanced over his shoulder at Aoshi—who said nothing—and shrugged.

"I caught him and this weasel girl fighting in my class," he said, ignoring Misao's yells of protest. "I'll leave them with you, Sayo." Turning on his heel, he breezed past a fuming Misao, leaving the teacher looking very bewildered.

"Well, then," she said hesitantly, looking from Aoshi's impassive face to Misao's angry one. "Take a seat—ah, Sano, I see you're here again, as usual. Did Yukyuzan-sensei pass you the Maths textbook you left behind in detention last Friday?" Turning around, Misao saw Sano walking in casually, his white jacket draped casually over his shoulder.

"Ah, yeah, Muto-sensei," he said grinning widely. "A good day to you."

"It's all this idiot's fault!" Misao said angrily, jabbing a finger in his direction. Muto-sensei and Sano blinked simultaneously.

"What, is this how you greet your detention buddy?" he said, his grin changing into a smirk. "The scene you caused was something, weasel, I couldn't stop laughing my ass off." She glowered at him and, storming down the classroom, taking the seat nearest to the back door. Sano followed, sitting at the desk in front of her.

"Go away, I don't want to talk to you," she snapped curtly at Sano, who had turned his chair so that he sat with the front of Misao's desk to his left. She watched out of the corner of her eye as Aoshi took a seat three rows to her left, ignoring their loud exchange.

"Aww c'mon weasel," Sano said, laughing. "It was funny, you know that." Scowling, she glared at the grinning boy. Why couldn't today be the freak accident where Sano _didn't _have detention? How was she find a way to talk to Aoshi now? Or at the very least, spend the whole of detention admiring him off from the side, without this annoying chicken head distracting her?

"Funny?!" she said. "I don't see what's funny about humiliating me in front of—" she faltered, cutting off the words 'Aoshi-kun' just in time, "—in front of the whole class!" Sano didn't seem to notice her lapse, and laughed.

"You know you do that all the time," he remarked, grinning. "You don't need me to help you with _that!_" She glared angrily at Sano and, seizing the opportunity to look at Aoshi, whipped her head haughtily in his direction—away from Sano.

Aoshi was bent over his desk, his head in his palm, an open book on the table. His silky black hair fell across his face as he read. Misao wondered what he was reading. In the corner of her mind she had dedicated to Aoshi 24/7, she was imagining how it would feel to have him look at her with the same intensity and focus as he was now looking at good for nothing book.

"Misao… I'm sorry, I'll stop making fun of you…" at the husky tone in his voice, Misao turned back to Sano, who was suddenly looking at her with a serious face. "Please, forgive me… By telling me who it is you like?" Finally breaking into a grin, all mock seriousness gone, Sano laughed at the frown that formed on Misao's face at his last few words.

"Sano, stop it!" she snapped, annoyed she had actually believed he going to apologise. "I'm not telling you and that's that! Anyway, you have a huge mouth, if I tell you, everyone in school will know by next Monday!" Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Aoshi lean back in his seat, resting the book on his lap. She turned her head slightly and caught the words 'in the Rye' as he moved it from table to lap. Good grief, would that book haunt her for the rest of her life?

"That's not true!" Sano protested. "In fact, I already know who you like, _and_ I haven't told anyone, not even _Kenshin_, I've just been fooling around with you!"

"You know who I like?!" Her attention solely his for once, Misao leaned forward, suddenly worried. "Liar!"

"Then call my bluff," he retorted, his face suddenly serious again. Twisting his body so he faced her, he leaned in close to her, his face inches away from hers. She felt her heart pounding in her chest, and she found herself hoping Aoshi could not hear their conversation.

"The person you've given your heart to," he whispered, his voice low and silky. "Is…" His gaze flickered to her left, and a wicked grin curled itself on his lips. "Shinomori Aoshi."

Misao recoiled as if she had been punched in the gut. Her heart all but stopped, and she felt her cheeks flare. Without thinking, she fled the classroom, muttering that she needed to go to the bathroom to Muto-sensei, who looked taken aback—a dumbfounded Sanosuke staring at her retreating back.

Shit. He was _right_??

-

_Misao, you idiot,_ she thought angrily, staring at her reflection in the mirror. She stood with her hands on the bathroom counter, watching as the flush in her cheeks slowly died down. Had she truly been so enamored with the brooding junior that she had not realized how blatantly obvious she had been about it?

Obviously so, as proven by that idiot rooster's earlier confession. Well, if he _had _known for a while already, it seemed that useless idiot could be trusted with _something_. Better him knowing than someone like Megumi, who might use such information against her. Misao felt a warm feeling in a chest for the brown haired boy, and determined to thank him later for not telling anyone else.

On the other hand, she frowned, if it was so obvious even that dull-witted rooster could tell, maybe there was nothing to thank him for. Splashing water in her face, she scrubbed it vigorously, angry at herself for being so transparent.

Analyzing her reflection once more, she saw that most of the flush had died down. Satisfied, she went back to the detention hall, loudly apologising to Muto-sensei for her abrupt departure ("When ya gotta go, ya gotta go!") and returning to her seat.

It was then that she noticed that Sano was being uncharacteristically quiet. He had turned his chair back to face to front, and was sitting back with his feet propped onto the table, much to Muto-sensei's dismay. He had been looking at her intently ever since she got back from the bathroom. Now, as she passed to sit down at her desk, he gave her a smirk and leaned back into his outstretched arms, closing his eyes and ignoring her.

_What's up with him?_ Misao wondered.

"Oi, Sano," she hissed, leaning forward so that her mouth was near the back of his head. He turned around to regard her oddly.

"What?"

"Nothing," she replied, frowning. "Just wanted to thank you for keeping it a secret for so long, how did you know? Was it really that obvious?" He looked slightly surprised for a moment, then shrugged.

"Don't mention it," he replied. He gave a crooked grin. "I'm not gonna tell you my secret." With that, he turned away, settling comfortably back in his seat.

"Hey, what's wrong," she persisted, not able to shake off the distinct feeling that Sano was hiding something from her. She grabbed the back of his seat and shook it. "Tell me!"

"Damn it, Makimachi!" Sano snapped, turning back. "Give it a rest will ya?" She gaped at his outburst. He turned away from her.

"I had expected better from you," he said quietly. "Than to just fall for some pretty face. You're just like all the other girls." He stood up and walked to the first seat of the row. Settling himself back once more, he closed his eyes, ignoring the shocked look Misao gave him.

-

_Dumb, dumb dummy dummy dumb dumb dummy dumb dumb! ARGH!!! _Misao growled angrily under her breath. She sat, staring at the back of Sano's head, wishing she could impale knives in his stupid skull. What the hell was that all about? 'I expect better from you?' Who did he _think_ he was?!

Letting out a frustrated sigh, she flopped her head onto the table, her clenched fists on either side. First Kaoru, now, even Sano?! Was her life turning into a soap opera, because this was _not _one bit entertaining.

She lifted her head and stared daggers at Sanosuke once more. She's not even going to call him Sano, or rooster-head anymore. From now on, it was Sanosuke, no, wait, better yet, Sagara. If he was going to be an ass to her, well, she would be a total bitch then.

Finally coming to a decision, she turned her head and rested her cheek in her palm. Ah, now with Sano-_no! Sagara_, she mentally berated herself, out of the way, she could spend all of detention ogling over her beloved Aoshi-sama. He really _was_ so perfect… From his perfect nose to those soft, so utterly-kissable lips, his high cheekbones and sculpted jaw to—_"just some pretty face."_

She blinked, sitting up in her seat. Where did that come from? She chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully, a small frown spreading across her features. Truth be told, Sano's (_Sagara's!_) words had affected her more than she was comfortable with admitting to. Why _was _she obsessed with Shinomori Aoshi?

Ever since his arrival at Kyoto High, the only other interaction between the two of them had been when she borrowed a pencil from him during Advanced English ("Sorry, mine broke") on the 18th of April, the second week since school re-opened—her 17th class together with him (yes, she counted how many lessons they had together, she was such a dweeb, and technically it would be 15th class, but she counted her double Advanced Japanese classes as two lessons).

Right now, it was approaching the end of May and aside from the crash incident, she had absolutely nothing to show. She had absolutely no clue what kind of person he had become, or why he kept to himself so absolutely, did he not recognize her or if he even remembered her (she never understood why she never came straight out and asked him).

All in all, her one sided love affair with Shinomori Aoshi had been completely and utterly groundless—spare the fact that when she was _six _she was absolutely head-over-heels in love with him, and that he was one of the best looking guys in the whole of Kyoto High.

It seemed that Misao was coming to one inevitable conclusion: she was as shallow and stupid as the silly girls in romance novels that she constantly made fun of (yet still found herself reading). But surely that couldn't be it? If she were, then why wait until the appearance of her childhood (sort of) sweetheart, who just _happened_ to be a total babe, to fall in love?

If that were the case, then she would have fallen for some good looking guy previously, like that Yukishiro Enishi! She and Kaoru had (despite the latter's so called commitment to a certain red-head) spent a fair share of lunch period swooning over his handsome face, broad, muscular shoulders and cool, quiet yet in control demeanor. The fair headed junior had even _senior_ girls sending love letters to him!

_And_, she thought, frowning, it wasn't like he was not as much out of her league as Aoshi was! Well actually, she paused, an ugly thought dawning on her, that made him quite a bit out of her league. They both were as untouchable to a tomboyish, loud, short ugly weasel such as herself.

The sudden thought depressed her, weighed her down. Was that it? Did she fall for Aoshi just because they had that one bit of 'history' together, therefore a good looking guy was suddenly within reach for her, Makimachi 'Weasel' Misao?

Casting Aoshi one last sidelong glance, she sighed and buried her head in her hands. Damn Sano. Why did he have to open that big mouth of his?!

**

* * *

****Author's Rants ( 20****th**** August 2007 – Monday, two days after posting chapter 3 ) :**

Well, I finished chapter 5. I'm so ahead of my schedule it's scary, this fic is turning out to be so much fun. Anyway, my last Author's Rants was REALLY long, so this one is gonna be really short, I only have two things I wanna say. Firstly, this chapter turned out really short, it seems my chapters are getting shorter and shorter, and I swear I'm not getting lazy, I just can't fit any more into it without making it _too_ long! I promise I'll try to get it _way _longer the next chapter k.

Secondly, I want to end off my Author's rants by saying: I'm an idiot. I stayed up all night to study for my Econs test today, near panicking at having 6 chapters to study with 3 hours to the test, before I realize with the help from a classmate that the test is on THURSDAY. Ugh, at least it kick started my studying and at least now I can. Thank God for finding out, else I'd have taken the 1 hour journey to school!

**( 26th August 2007 - Sunday, written while posting ) :**

Well here it is, the much awaited Detention with Aoshi-sama. Haha, I QUITE like how it turned out, and I think the fic took an unexpected turn towards slightly darker themes, which was a surprise to me also. I'm not exactly a dark person, but I do like to explore very deep, very raw things that people usually are too ashamed to admit to themselves, or even realize. So yeah. I know, I'm posting this a tad late (it's Sunday afternoon), but I'm trying to keep to my schedule, plus I don't wanna rush it too much as well.

I'll post the next installment either Wed or Thurs, I've got myself a new job so for the next 3 weeks I'll be working 8am to 6pm, so you can imagine I'm not gonna have much time. I've already finished chapter 6 fortunately, but I'm still not sure about it, which is also why I'm putting off posting it till Thursday, I wanna read it through a few more times, see if I'm satisfied with it and like it still after I've sat with it a few more days, I only finished it yesterday night. Till then!


	6. Chapter 6

**I Don't Like The Catcher in the Rye **

**_Chapter 6 _**

Misao's eyes fluttered open. She felt something hard yet inexplicably soft at the same time beneath her, warm and smooth. She was lying in an awkward angle, and her legs were tangled up in…

Oh. Blushing, she sat up without thinking, using her hands to push herself up. Unfortunately, the very thing she used to push herself up was the shoulder of the person she was currently sitting on, and it slipped down the smooth material of the front of his shirt and she found herself back on the floor and face to face with Shinomori Aoshi.

Biting her lips, she felt a blush spread all the way up from her neck. She was acutely aware of the warmth of his arm beneath her, cradling her head, and how hard and loudly her heart was beating at that instant. Their faces were inches from each other's, and she bit her lip, gazing into his azure eyes. She wondered why was it that no one was yelling at her (for some reason Saitou came to mind) and, even more so, why Aoshi was not asking her to get off him yet.

"Aoshi…-kun…" she breathed, faint. Was this really happening? Was she really lying in Shinomori Aoshi's arms, and was he really letting her do so? Her mind felt clouded and hazy—she found she was having difficulty thinking straight.

"Aa…" he said, his voice low and husky. He leaned in towards her and she closed her eyes, a shiver running down her spine. She felt his cheek brush against hers and she turned her head slightly as he nuzzled close to her. His warm breath sent a shudder throughout her body.

"Misao…" he all but whispered into her ear. She felt an involuntary sigh slip her parted lips at the sound of her name. "Tell me…"

"Anything…"

"Why… Why are you in love with me? You don't know me." She felt a prick of annoyance. Not quite what she was expecting to hear, but he was so close, and the feeling passed in an instant.

"I… I…" she was at a loss for words.

"Let me…" he interrupted. He pulled back slightly and she opened her eyes, only to see Sanosuke's face—his eyes half closed, lips parted as if he were caught in a moment of ultimate peace and joy. His lips moved, but it was Aoshi's voice that came out of his mouth.

"It's because you're a shallow, useless hypocrite," Sano/Aoshi said, his face never losing that faraway look.

"I'm sorry?" she whispered, oddly not freaked out by the sudden appearance of Sano in front of her, or the fact that she was hearing Aoshi's voice. She closed her eyes again.

"You're shallow and useless," Sano/Aoshi repeated, reaching a hand up to cup her cheek lightly. She flinched at the touch, her eyes opening as the words registered in her drunken state of mind. Yet her body was responding to her closeness—every muscle in her being felt relaxed, her breath came in deep sighs, while her mind recoiled in horror at his words.

He drew her close, so that their noses were touching. She realized Sano's eyes were a soft, blue grey.

"You love me purely because of how I look," he sighed sensually, and she heard herself echo his sigh. Her arms, the only part of her body she felt she had some semblance of control over, tensed.

"That makes you shallow," he said, his voice not losing its huskiness. "Shallow and useless, and because you taunt those who do the same thing as you, a hypocrite. You hide behind the pretense of a 6 year old's love, when you are truly hiding behind the fact that you're ugly and unattractive."

Her arms, stronger and more her own now, pushed against him, trying to widen the distance between them, but he wrapped his arm around her and trapped her. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to concentrate on waking her body up from its current state of slumber.

"Misao…" Aoshi's voice groaned, deep and throaty, filling her mind. Immediately she felt a warmth spread through her entire body, but her mind was screaming danger. Her body was torn, caught between her warring emotions, and she struggled in his grasp, her breath coming out in ragged hitches.

"Misao," he shifted beneath her, and her eyes flew open and it was once again _Aoshi_ who half rose and leaned over her, his intense gaze burning her. She stopped her struggling and looked at him, her breathing coming in short gasps, waiting—whether in fear or with desire she couldn't be sure.

"Ao… shi…" she whispered, her voice breaking on his name. She felt tears spring to her eyes although she did not know why. He lowered his head and grazed his lips across her cheeks, kissing them lightly. His eyes were gentle, and his mouth curved into a half smile. A feeling of dread mounted in her chest in anticipation of the words that were going to come out of his mouth; her mind screamed for her to flee, and her body was still traitorously responding to his touch.

"How could you ever hope for me to love you back?" he asked, his voice a soft whisper. Her breathing quickened, and she dug her nails into her palms even as he brushed the lobe of her ear with soft lips. "What do you think an ugly girl like you could _ever_ offer a guy like me… Besides… Your…"

Her body finally responding, she shot up, shoving him with all her might. She sat, gasping, her whole body trembling violently. In the distance she heard something crash. Her eyes wide, she was vaguely aware that she was still in detention hall. Drawing shaky breaths, she looked up and realized Muto-sensei was looking at her, worry etched deeply to her face. Dazedly, she looked down at the overturned desk.

_It was__…_ Only a dream after all. Forcing her breath to calm, she focused on the present, realizing every eye in the room was upon her. Even Aoshi had looked up from his book, his unwavering gaze resting on her, unnerving her. She grinned weakly.

"Sorry, bad dream," she said apologetically, sheepishly. Mouthing a sympathetic "Ah…", Muto-sensei nodded and gave her a small smile before continuing with her work, while Aoshi simply turned back to his book.

Sano, however, was still watching her. Anger flaring up in her chest, she met his gaze stonily, eyes never leaving his as she leaned over to pick up her desk. Part of her blamed him for her nightmare, well actually, all of her blamed him. They continued staring at each other for a few moments, before Sano uncharacteristically looked away first, turning to the front, his face an unreadable mask.

Oddly disappointed, Misao sat back, staring without quite seeing, and sank into herself, her mind a careful blank. She did not move until the last bell rang.

-

Abruptly, it rained, hard and fast. Misao stared up at the sky in disbelief. Where the hell had that come from? A flash of lightning crackled magnificently across the western sky. Off to her right, she heard Coach Higashidani cursing the weather darkly. The rumbling thunder caused heads to be turned skywards in apprehension.

Slowly the girl's soccer team trickled off the field and into the locker room, where Coach Higashidani went through some team formation tactics before calling it a day. An exhausted Misao now stood under the shower head, grateful for the warm water cascading down her body. She had run herself ragged today, venting her frustrations on the pitch. The result was that she was too tired to mull over the events of the day, and the exercise had helped lift her dark mood, if not completely, enough.

"Misao, did you drown in there or something?!" the voice of Higashidani Uki, the coach's daughter, called out. "Everyone's out except you!"

"Go away, Uki!" Misao shouted. "I'm having fun in the shower!"

"Misao!" Uki chided, laughing. "Keep your dirty habits to yourself!" Misao could not help but grin at that, even if the other girl could not see it.

"Yeah!" Seijuu Omasu joined in. "We're gonna leave you behind Misao!"

"Yeah yeah, whatever," Misao replied lazily, closing her eyes and leaning back into the water. "You guys go ahead 'kay, I wanna stay here a little longer, ooh, I need this shower." Her team mates laughed, and after a while, the chatter and giggles faded with the sound of the locker room door closing. Misao sighed contently. Usually she would join them for dinner, but today she wanted nothing else than to just go straight home and sleep all the way to next Monday.

When she finally left the showers, the rain had already stopped. The last glimmer of daylight was slowly fading over the horizon, and she strolled leisurely across the school track, towards the bicycle bay. As she was approaching the main building, the front doors opened and out stepped a tall figure. She stopped dead in her tracks. _Oh shit…_

Aoshi walked down the front steps, a canvas bag slung casually over his shoulder. He paused at the bottom of the steps and turned in her direction. _Oh shit shit shit…_ she cursed, frozen in her step. Their eyes caught and for a fraction of a second, time stopped.

"Well I've gotta say, he's freaking _good_," a loud voice thundered out, as the doors to Kyoto High were flung open, and 4 other figures sauntered out. Aoshi turned away and looked expectantly at the newcomers, who were seniors that Misao identified as the guys he had been eating lunch with a few days earlier. Snapped out of her daze, she started walking again, berating herself at being caught staring.

"Same time next Monday guys," the loud voice belonged to an incredibly tall, muscular boy, with long brown hair that spilled messily over his shoulders. He had a strong face that was marred by a huge, ugly scar that ran down the side of his face, over his left eye, running parallel to his noise.

"See ya." Waving a huge arm, he started walking towards the bicycle bay. A strikingly handsome boy, almost as tall as Aoshi—though significantly skinnier—followed after him, nodding his farewell.

A small, mousy looking boy with a ridiculous amount of gel in his hair muttered something Misao could not hear, and, together with a huge, rather dull looking boy, they left in the direction of the track side gate, towards Misao. They took no notice of her as they passed, caught up in good natured bickering. Aoshi had turned back to the front gate, and was walking slowly towards it.

"Hey," Misao called, her legs moving as if of their own accord to increase her pace. _Ugh, what the hell am I doing?_ Aoshi turned his head, pausing.

"Yes?"

"Erm…" she faltered, suddenly shy. She was not sure what in the world had possessed her to start running after the guy. She ventured a small smile. "Just wanted to say sorry… You know, about detention. I mean, for getting you in detention today. It really wasn't your fault, Saitou is just a real bastard." He looked at her for a moment, then nodded.

"It's a small matter," he said. "Understandable considering the teacher in question. Consider it forgotten." He started walking again, and she followed, trying to match his long stride.

"So, where are ya going?" she asked, then groaned inwardly at the idiotic question. She hated how nervousness caused her to chatter incessantly. He was silent, and just as she thought he was not going to answer, he said, "Home."

"Oh, really, well, where do ya live?" she asked brightly, happy he had replied at all. They walked through the front gates, and he turned left. This time he did not answer. Without really thinking, Misao found herself falling in step with him, even though her house was down the street on the right.

"Do you live near the station?" she asked, chagrined at the words that were coming out of her mouth. "I mean, you don't have to answer, just, I'm heading towards the station to pick up something, maybe we could walk together." It was a lie. She had planned on hopping on her bike and taking her time to cycle home, enjoying the cool night air, forgetting the horrible events of the day. Now here she was, _walking_ to Kyoto Station with the man of her dreams (in more ways than one), the very person she had been trying to forget, every step taking her further and further away from home. God, why was she so stupid?

"Aa," he said, finally. "I'm taking the subway."

"Oh, wow, you have to take it every day?" she asked, her shyness vaporizing as she digested that new piece of information. "How can you stand it, I hate the subway, it's so _crowded _and horrible, ick."

"…You get used to it," he said. She smiled. They were having an actual conversation! Sort of, she was doing most of the talking, but that was fine with her!

"Do you live very far?" she asked, curiously. "Cause I could never imagine having to take the subway everyday, I'm so glad I live cycli—" cutting herself off hastily before she revealed she had a bicycle, which could lead to all sorts of unwanted questions "—I mean, quite near the school."

"No," he replied, indifferent to her falter. "It's only a ten minute ride."

"Ah, I see," she said thoughtfully. She was a silent for a moment, before asking the first thing that came to her mind. "Do you like History?"

"…Yes."

"How about Literature?"

"Yes."

"Ew," she said, wrinkling her nose. "I hate Literature, I have _no_ clue why I decided to take it. The Catcher in the Rye is so _BORING!"_

"…I like The Catcher in the Rye." _Oops._

"W-well, good for you," she managed, wishing she would just shut up. "I guess I'm just not a Literature person, I hate reading!" Caught in her passionate dislike for Literature, she immediately forgot her embarrassment at insulting a book Aoshi liked. "I can't bear sitting still for long, I think I'm allergic to books." She stole a glance at Aoshi, to see if that line had coaxed a smile from him. It hadn't.

"Ugh, but I can't afford to fail Literature," she continued, undaunted by his lack of reaction to her rants. "Maybe one day you can tell me what actually _happens_ in the damn book so I don't have to read it, ne, Aoshi-kun?"

"…Maybe."

"Whoo hoo, alright!" she cheered, pumping her fist in the air. Maybe this day wouldn't turn out so bad after all. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her she had not eaten since lunch, and without thinking she asked, "Hey, Aoshi-kun, have you eaten dinner yet? I'm really hungry, ya wanna eat?"

Aoshi paused in his step and turned to look down at her. She shifted uncomfortably beneath his scrutiny, and suddenly she remembered that, with the exception of the 18th of April pencil incident and today, they had never actually _talked_ up until that moment. What would he think of her, asking him to have dinner with her with such familiarity, even though they were virtually strangers. Come to think of it, what had_ she_ been thinking?

"It's not like that!" she blurted, feeling her face get hot. "I mean, I'm sorry, I know we barely know each other, it's just that I _do _feel kinda bad about your detention today—" and she truly did, it's just that the joy at being in the same room with him followed by the drama that had unfolded after Sano revealed her big secret had completely overshadowed her guilt, "—because it was my fault, well, Sano-I mean, _Sagara's _fault really, but if you'd let me I wanna make it up to you, oh please let me make it up to you, dinner my treat?" She was babbling, and she couldn't help it. _Please, oh please say yes…_

He was silent for a while, scanning her face, she wondered what he was thinking.

"E-even if you say no," she declared boldly, her mouth once again speaking on her behalf. "I'm gonna _have_ to treat you to dinner eventually, for causing you so much trouble. (It _really_ wasn't your fault!)"

"…Aa," he said, finally, and started walking again. Misao broke into a wide grin. Nearly tripping over herself as she tried to keep up with his long strides, she started talking uninhibitedly, her endless chatter filling the silence as they walked to Kyoto Station together.

"So, where do ya wanna eat, Aoshi-kun? I know this place…"

* * *

**Author's Rants ( 29th August 2007 - Wednesday, Written as posting this chapter! ) :**

A non back-dated author's rants! You guys are so lucky, haha, now you won't get all confused by the chronological order! Actually I finished the chapter only a couple of days ago. I'd written up to before cutting to girl's soccer and couldn't quite continue, I got some inspiration from the sudden, very heavy burst of rain (hence it being reflected in my fic) that I experienced on that day.

**Anyway, before I continue, minor announcement.**

_I went back to chapters 3 and 4 to make minor edits, nothing story-line altering in anyway hahah. In Chapter 4 I closed the parenthesis of Misao's thoughts about Yumi (haha i noticed i accidentally deleted it just now), and instead of starting a new paragraph even though it was still Yumi speaking I brought it back up so now it's one long paragraph instead of two shorter (but SLIGHTLY more confusing) paragraphs (very minor I know, but it bugs me). And in Chapter 3 I put the explanation of kohai to the start of the chapter instead of at the end after complaints from a peeved reviewer :P haha, thanks alot KyteAura for pointing it out, I kinda wanted it to be a footnote, it didn't actually occur to me to put it at the start, I have no clue why._

**End of announcement.**

Ok, this chapter is, as promised, _way_ longer than the previous one (by about 700 words, this is my longest chapter to date). I'm not sure how the chapter turned out... I _kinda_ like the ending bit, but I'm not so sure about the dream (I spent a really long time editting it till I was satisfied with it, hope it's okay but I'm not so sure if I'm very happy with it tho)... I'm also worried about Aoshi and Misao's conversation, did it feel too stunted or awkward, and I mean stunted and awkward in a BAD way, not 'she feels awkward around him' that kind of awkward. I'm very worried about my conversations, I feel like I can't write them smart or funny enough, ugh they always sound so immature! Also, was it realistic? Do you guys think Aoshi and Misao are in character????

I also got complaints (glances at KyteAura) about the lack of Aoshi up to chapter 3, and I realized he's also not really there in chapter 5, haha, I hope chapters 4 and this chapter make up for it! Sorry bout it k, we'll be seeing more of Aoshi in future chapters I promise I'll try, haha, no guarantees tho, like I said the story has a life of it's own:P DO tell me if you think I'm going too slowly tho, thanks...

Oh, and I've started work now, just to let ya'll know, which could be why I don't have a back dated Author's Rant. It's a pretty good job, I'm in the training phase so it's 8:30 to 5:30 for the next 3 weeks, but I get weekends off so I'll try to make it up by then, plus I do write when I get home, after my OTHER job which is giving tuition to a 12 year old girl. As of this moment, I've only written TWO lines of Chapter 7, yeah I know, it's so not like me to be so far behind, but I've got 7 lines of guide and another 6 brainstorming ideas, so it's not a totally gone case, haha... I'm NOT entirely sure how I'm gonna carry on actually, or what's going to happen to tell you the truth. I THOUGHT I knew, but now, well, I'm not too sure... Noticed what COULD be a flaw in my plan, I'm still analysing it...

Anyway, a huge thank you to all you readers. Your reviews mean aLOT to me, especially when ya take the time to give constructive criticism and point out my mistakes, thank you so so so much! Continue reading please, I DO still plan on updating by Sunday even though I have work though, don't worry. :) Till then!


	7. Chapter 7

**I Don't Like The Catcher in the Rye**

_**Chapter 7 **_

The setting sun cast pastel rays in the darkening sky, the remnants of rain clinging to the leaves of the late summer trees and in small puddles scattered across paths. In the distance, various crashes and swearing could be heard.

"God, Sano, _chill!_" exasperated, Tsukioka Katsuhiro finally looked up from the painting he was trying to finish. "Why are you so worked up anyway?"

"You don't know her like I do, Katsu," Sano replied, slamming his fist down onto the wooden table. Katsu watched a pencil roll across the table, over the edge and to the floor. "She's smart, and funny, she doesn't dedicate herself to impressing guys like most girls and most importantly, she's completely honest with you. With her, you never have to worry that she's trying to use you for anything." He kicked a trashcan over, spilling its contents over the park grass.

"I can't believe she has a crush on that damn stoner," he muttered darkly. "I only ever brought him up because he happened to be _there_, I was just trying to tease her… I never considered in a million years I'd be freaking _right!_"

"So what?" Katsu asked irritably, bending over to pick up the stray pencil. "Just because she has an adolescent crush on some guy you don't approve of, you throw a hissy fit and start throwing things around? She's 17, as are you. Grow the hell up, you're acting worse than she is."

"You don't get it," Sano said in frustration, kicking the overturned trashcan again. It bounced off the grass. "The guy she's crazy about, he has like half the school's female population going ga-ga over him, freaking pretty boy… Misao should know better than to go for the tall, dark and handsome thing. It's such a… Childish and stupid, _typical_ female thing. Misao is _not_ a typical, boring, shallow girl. That she can fall so easily for someone so… _Stereotypically_ attractive!"

"If I didn't know better," Katsu remarked, turning back to his painting. "I'd say you were jealous."

"What, _jealous_?" Sano spat venomously. "Because of that _weasel? _I think _not_."

"If you say so," Katsu replied absently, flicking his paintbrush artfully over his canvas. "So why are you getting so worked up over it then? I can't imagine why else you would be so angry over something as minor as this… Unless you're upset that the object of her affection is _not_ you."

"I just think that Shinomori is an ass okay?" Sano snapped, finally sitting down. "I mean, he _never _smiles. How can you trust someone like that? Weasel girl can get annoying, but I wouldn't want her to get hurt or anything."

"_That's_ your case?" Katsu asked, tearing his eyes away from his painting to afford Sano a disbelieving expression. "I hope you're not considering a career in law."

"I just don't have a good feeling about the guy okay?" Sano said almost sulkily. "Look, are you on my side or his?"

"Whatever you say, Sano," Katsu said, concentrating on his work. "Just, sort out your 'feelings' first. You don't want to make a fool out of yourself. As usual."

"Oi!"

-

"Ne, Aoshi, what do ya wanna eat?" Misao asked cheerfully as they stepped into the Kyoto Station building. "Tempura? Ooh, I've been wanting to try out the 'Ten Ichi' tempura, it's supposed to be _really _good! Did you know that the American president Bill Clinton was taken there during a presidential visit? Oh! Or do you want negiyakiI've never really tried it, I wonder if it'll be any good… The tonkatsufrom the 'Katsukura' is supposed to be really nice…" She looked up at him expectantly.

"…Tonkatsu sounds fine," he said, giving a slight nod. She grinned widely.

"Misao-chan!"

"Megumi-chan!" she jumped, whirling in the direction of the voice. Her eyes widened. "Himura!"

"Misao-dono!" Kenshin said, looking as surprised she felt. "Ah, Shinomori-san…"

"Why, Misao," Megumi said, grinning mischievously at the now nervous girl. "I didn't know you had it in you, how _did _you snag this hottie—" out of the corner of her eye Misao thought she saw Aoshi stiffen imperceptibly "—all for yourself?" She flashed Aoshi a flirtatious smile. His face completely emotionless, he stared at her with cold eyes that held just the slightest hint of boredom. Megumi's smile faltered.

"It's not what you think!" Misao protested, her hands in the air in a gesture of surrender. "I'm just treating Aoshi-kun here to dinner, I kinda owe him one for getting him into detention."

"Oh?" Megumi arched an eyebrow, recovering. "What, pray tell, did you do to get him into detention?"

"Oro? What did Misao-dono do to get into detention again?" Kenshin asked, looking confused. "And how did you get Shinomori-san into it?"

"It's not _my_ fault," Misao said defensively. "Saitou is a crazy bastard and you know it." She scowled angrily as she thought of Sanosuke. "Him, and that stupid chicken shit Sano being an ass, as usual." Both Megumi and Kenshin blinked at the ferocity in her voice.

"Did you two have a fight?" Megumi asked curiously. "Up to this moment all you had to say about that boy were only good things." Kenshin looked increasingly confused.

"Misao-dono, with good words about Sano?" he echoed faintly, not really addressing his question to anyone in particular. Misao blushed a bit, remembering belatedly that she was supposed to be helping Kaoru by breaking Megumi and Kenshin up.

"He has his moments…" she mumbled. Brightening abruptly, ignoring Kenshin confused and Megumi's questioning looks, she asked, "Anyway, what are you two doing here?"

"Oh, we just came out of a movie," Megumi said, grinning slyly as she slid her arm through Kenshin's.

"Oro?"

"We're going to grab some dinner now," she said. "Why don't you guys join us, we can double date!"

"We're not on a _date_, Megumi-chan!" Misao protested, sneaking a peek at Aoshi, who up to that moment had not said anything.

"Well, it looks it!" Megumi said coyly, twirling a lock of hair around her finger.

"Well we're not," Misao said firmly, stubbornly crossing her arms across her chest in defiance. "Right Aoshi-kun?"

"No, we're not," he agreed calmly. "I'd rather a quiet meal, alone, if you don't mind," he said in a voice that indicated he did not, indeed, care if they did. "Enjoy your date." He gave a stunned Megumi and Kenshin a rather curt nod, and, a shocked Misao hurriedly following after him, walked away from the couple and towards Kyoto Station's The Cube shopping mall.

-

"Geez, who does he think he is!" Angrily, Megumi bit into her garden salad. Her free hand was drumming impatiently on the tabletop.

"Maa, maa, Megumi-dono," Kenshin said nervously, trying to sooth the furious girl. "That's just his way, don't be angry."

"One day I'm going to get you to drop the whole '-dono' thing," Megumi said irritably, anger at Aoshi temporarily forgotten. She frowned. "But right now what I _don't _get is what he's doing with that... girl. Someone as physically attractive as he is surely has his pick from the cream of the crop." Kenshin gaped at her, shocked.

"Me…Megumi-dono!" he stuttered. "I'm sure Misao-dono has her redeeming qualities! In any case Shinomori Aoshi doesn't seem like the type to go for looks, and they could very well be having an innocent dinner together with absolutely no other intentions.

"The way Misao-dono got so angry when she thought of Sano, I'd say she really _did _get Aoshi into detention by accident, and knowing Sano, he's definitely behind it, some way or another. Perhaps Misao-dono really did feel incredibly guilty about causing Shinomori-san to have to spend a day in detention and offered to make it up to him. It doesn't seem all that far fetched, and indeed is a logical explanation, de gozaru."

Megumi stared at Kenshin incredulously.

"For as long as we've been going out—" (_Oro,_ _going out?) _"—not _once _have you given as long a speech as the one you just gave." Her expression suddenly darkened ominously.

"Ken-san," she said in a low, dangerous tone. Kenshin found himself backing up, grateful for the table that separated them. "Do you have… _FEELINGS _for that weasel girl?!"

"OROO?!?!?"

-

_He wants to be alone with me!!!!_

It was all Misao could do to keep from doing a little jig right there in the elevator, much less suppress the huge grin that was threatening to split her face in half. Next to her, Aoshi did not seem to notice her unusual silence, her attention focused on the struggle to contain her excitement. He stared stoically ahead.

_Aoshi-kun wants to be alone with me!!! Me!! Argh!!_

_Ding!_

"I think this is the floor," Misao sang, practically skipping out. "11th floor right, Aoshi-kun?"

"Aa."

"This way, Aoshi-kun!"

They somehow managed to find a seat in the nearly filled restaurant, in a quiet corner near the back. Misao smiled to herself. _This is really feeling more and more like a date! _She ordered a chicken katsu set for herself, and Aoshi ordered a tonkatsu set.

"So, Aoshi," Misao said once the waitress had taken their order. "What were you staying so late after school for?"

"I had kempo," he said simply. Misao looked puzzled.

"Kempo?"

"Aa," he replied. "It's the Japanese way of reading the Chinese words 'quan fa', which literally means 'fist principles', or 'fist method'. Generally it is used to refer to a wide variety of martial arts in general, especially in East Asia, although there are instances where it's used as a blanket term for all martial arts.

"There are many variations of the Japanese Kempo, like Okinawa Kempo and the traditional form of Japanese karate, Kempo Kai. Here in Kyoto High we practise Nippon Kempo. It is a widely known and popular martial art system, especially in Japan and Europe. Here in Japan, it's practised in over 100 universities and is part of the training in many police forces."

Silence.

"...Wow," Misao said, gaping at him. He met her shocked gaze levelly.

"Sorry?" She blinked, and flushed.

"Ah, no!" she said hastily, looking away in embarrassment. "It's just, I didn't think you'd be so… _Passionate_ about it!"

"Passionate?" he repeated, frowning slightly. "I was merely giving you a brief idea of what kempo is." Misao giggled.

"Yeah, but, well, you don't speak!" she exclaimed, laughing at the slight crease between his brows—the closest thing to looking confused Aoshi could ever get.

"I'm sorry," she said, clamping down forcefully on the hysterical giggling bubbling up in her chest. "It's just, well, you don't seem like the kind of person who speaks much unless you feel the need to. That you could churn out such a long speech detailing what kempo is all about shows your interest in it, and that it is something important to you." Although his expression never changed, Misao thought she saw something shift behind his impenetrable mask. He studied her innocent expression in silence, and she felt herself behind weighed, judged. She realized she was holding her breath.

"…I see," he said, finally. She felt herself deflate. Had he judged her, and found her wanting?

"I-I'm sorry!" she blurted out, desperate to dig her way out of the self-dug grave. "What do I know, right, haha, silly me, I barely even know you! In fact, aside from the 18th of April we've never even spoken before today, who am I to say what you are or are not."

"The 18th of April?" he asked, completely unfazed by her rather frantic outburst. If Misao did not know better, she'd have sworn there was a glimmer of… _Amusement_ in those steel grey eyes.

"N-n-no!" she stammered, desperately wanting to change the subject. When would she learn to think before she said anything? "I mean, yes, wait, I mean, I don't know what you're talking about, oh look, our food is here! Let's eat, I'm starving Aoshi-kun." Carefully keeping her eyes fixed on the platter of food that the waitress had set before her, she took a big bite of a piece of chicken katsu.

"Mmm!" she said theatrically, finally looking at him, her eyes wide with exaggerated pleasure. "Wow, Aoshi-kun, the food here is _nice! _So nice…" Averting her gaze again, she ate with large, exaggerated bites and chewing, making sure she was so absorbed in the food she was too busy to talk or look at him. In reality, all she could taste was cardboard, her mind could not focus on the delicious food she was (embarrassingly) loudly proclaiming a new found love for.

"…Aa," Aoshi finally said as he too dug into his meal, albeit with smaller, almost delicate bites and a lot less noise. They continued dinner in this manner. She eventually dropped the ridiculous act after it became apparent Aoshi was not going to pursue the matter, and began talking nearly non-stop between bites. She talked about everything she could think of, though she occasionally stopped to ask Aoshi his thoughts on the matter, something he would divulge, rather succinctly, in a word or two—his only contribution to the mostly one sided conversation.

* * *

**Author's Rants ( 5th September 2007 - Wednesday, 3 days late and a week after the last chapter! ) :**

Eep guys, I'm SO sorry for taking so long to update! Well, okay it's not long, but I'm LATE! Hahaha, I'm really really sorry, I had the ideas in my head, I was just having trouble getting them out, and was too busy with work to be able to properly write so yeah, I'm so so sorry... This chapter is a bit haphazard I feel, I wrote like 30 of it while I was at work so pls pls pls point out any glaring grammatical or spelling errors. I'm on my 2nd week of work now, hopefully I'll have another chapter up by Sunday, but this time I'm not promising anything k guys, I'm sorry. Don't worry tho, next week I DEFINITELY will post at least one chapter, that's my quota, by end of next week my training'll be done and i won't have to work daily 8:30am to 5pm so I'll have alot more free time :) After that, beware an influx of chapters! (I hope)

anyway, the only thing I guess I really wanna say about this chapter is this: I did my research! The Cube is an actual shopping mall in the Kyoto Station (the central one), and the Katsukura is an actual restaurant on the 11th floor! As is the Ten Ichi, and it really WAS visited by Bill Clinton! Fun facts huh? I've been looking at pictures of Kyoto and everything, it's a really cool place... I've got like, the details as to where Aoshi lives, and where everything is in relation to everything more or less mapped out, haha, so yeah. And everything Aoshi said about kempo, it's true I think, i got it off the wikipedia stub on kempo and Nippon kempo. Oh ya, and tonkatsu is pork in breaded crust, chicken katsu is chicken in breaded crust, and the Katsukura really did get good reviews in the site I researched it on. Just thought you should know. Personally I've never been to Japan so I'm really sorry that this isn't really very believable.

OK people, that's all I have for my Author's Rants today. I'm really, really tired, I kinda forced myself to finish this chapter, which is why it's a bit short, sorry bout that, I had one more thing I could fit in but I really wanted to post it ASAP and I don't think I can survive writing some more AND write the Author's Rants so I can post it. I slept at freaking 3:30am this morning, woke at 7am and have been out and about every since and it's 11pm now... Plus e previous nights also I didn't sleep much. Gonna lie down, stupid annoying chinese screwed up festival downstairs making a huge racket with annoying people who can't freaking sing. argh, I'm refraining myself from swearing up a storm man, but i'm damn pissed!

OK lying down bye people review and i'm sorry again for the late update, review please. My eyes really really ache man... they burn!!! And i'm not even kidding... night...


	8. Chapter 8

**I Don't Like The Catcher in the Rye**

**_Chapter 8 _**

"Megumi-dono, I don't understand why you're so upset over Misao-dono and Shinomori-san having dinner together, de gozaru…"

"I'm _not _upset over their having dinner together," Megumi snapped irritably at Kenshin, scowling at him. He shrugged his shoulders and grinning sheepishly. "I'm merely puzzled. What could he possibly see in her?"

"Looks are not everything," Kenshin replied, nodding wisely. Megumi fell silent, studying the ground as they made their way at a leisurely pace to Kyoto Station.

"… That's what they all say," she said finally, a wry, cynical smile on her face. Kenshin paused in his step, causing her to stop too. He looked into her eyes, and she saw a softness there that she had never noticed before.

"I don't know what hurt Megumi-dono has gone through in the past, de gozaru," he said softly. "To cause her to have such a cynical outlook on relationships. I hope that one day, you could find someone who can show you that how you look on the outside does not matter, but it's what inside that counts. But putting down people who you think aren't good looking enough to be 'good' enough for someone isn't going to make the hurt go away, de gozaru ka."

"I… I don't know what you're talking about!" Megumi snapped, turning away haughtily. "That's an awfully rude thing to say, Ken-san, especially on a first date."

"No," he said. She felt a hand on her shoulder, and she looked up into kind, violet eyes, crinkled by the gentlest of smiles. "When Megumi-dono made that comment about looks being all that matters, her voice was filled with such bitterness and hurt that I realized that Megumi-dono has been hurt very badly in the past because looks, to whoever it is she had been seeing, _did _matter.

"It has cut its way into her very core, and she cannot help but believe it is the absolute truth, and as a result harbours great resentment towards so-called 'unattractive' girls who have handsome boyfriends. But it has been buried so deep inside that Megumi-dono probably does not even realize how strongly she feels about it, or even the root cause of it.

"She feels that because she is more attractive than Misao-dono, Shinomori-san would automatically react to her flirtations, as her previous boyfriend probably had done so when a more attractive girl came along. That, de gozaru, is the reason why she was so angry when Shinomori-san outright rejected her advances, choosing Misao-dono over her." He smiled again, his eyes sparkling in the night lights.

"Megumi-dono. It does not always have to be like this, de gozaru. Looks, _really_, aren't everything. Anyone who feels that way, is not worth your time, or your heart." They stood as they were for a moment, him, a gentle smile and reassuring hand on her shoulder and her, eyes wide, mirrors of shock and remembered hurt and pain.

Then time moved once again, and she slapped him, hard, the sound crisp and sharp in contrast to the dull drone of Kyoto traffic. He turned his head to face her again, the gentleness in his eyes never leaving, his lips quirked in the smallest of smiles.

"Although I am not the one that slap was intended for, I hope that Megumi-dono feels emancipated of the hurt that has been weighing down on her heart, holding her back from a true, meaningful relationship with someone who can truly appreciate and love her for the woman that she is."

Tears now welling in her eyes, she whirled around and stormed off angrily without a word, never stopping to look back.

-

The weekend passed all too quickly for Misao, who spent most of it lying in bed staring at the ceiling while replaying her entire Friday evening, word for word, in her head, over and over again. Every single word was carefully and thoroughly analyzed, searching for hidden meanings in his, unintended ambiguousness in hers. Before she knew it, her wretched alarm was beeping, yelling at her to go to school.

_Five… More… Min…__ utes…_

—_SHIT!_

"Misao, are you stil—"

"Bye Ketsuna-san!" Misao yelled, slamming the door behind her. Mrs Ketsuna blinked. That girl…

-

"You're late, Makimachi. Six rounds, go." Misao groaned in protest.

"But!"

"No buts," Coach Higashidani said. "Go, this will be good for your form, you're getting sloppy."

Grumbling under her breath, Misao started her run around the school track. Sometimes having her soccer coach as her gym teacher as well had major disadvantages! As she passed the class, she saw Kaoru, Sanosuke and Kenshin sitting together, absorbed in conversation. She felt a flicker of anger ignite in her stomach. Were they talking about her?

At that moment, Kaoru looked at her, an expression of pure fury on her face. Misao gulped, her own anger dissipating. _Uh-oh, I think she knows about Megumi and Kenshin… _Increasing her speed, for once she was grateful that she would escape gym with Kaoru, at least for now. As nerdy and as quiet as her friend could be, she had an infamous temper, and was surprisingly adept at most of the games they were forced to play in gym. Plus she was deceptively strong. Misao secretly suspected her friend of pumping iron every day, although she had never really dared to straight out ask her.

Kaoru watched as Misao ran further and further away, seething under her breath. _Oh, that silly, big-mouthed,_ _weasel headed…_ she cursed at Misao's retreating back.

"It was not a date, Sano," Kenshin protested, snapping Kaoru back to the present. "Anyway, you're avoiding my question de gozaru. Did you and Misao-dono have a fight?"

"Yeah," Kaoru chimed in, having overheard Kenshin asking Sano that, which was why she had joined in their conversation, interested. "Aren't you two like, detention buddies or something?"

"Ugh don't remind me," Sano said, grimacing. "Anyway, I notice you and that weasel aren't talking as well, jou-chan." Kaoru glared at him.

"It's… Complicated," she sniffed.

"Kaoru-dono and Misao-dono had a fight?" Kenshin asked, looking positively bewildered. "When did this happen?"

"It's been on for a few days now," Sano said, exasperated. "Honestly Kenshin, where the hell have you been?"

"He's been too busy being wrapped around that fox devil's fingers, that's where," Kaoru snapped before she could stop herself. Sano and Kenshin stared at her, and she flushed. "I mean, I'm sorry, I don't like that girl…" Sano was giving her an odd look, and she shifted uncomfortably under the scrutiny.

"Megumi-dono is just misunderstood de gozaru," Kenshin spoke up, smiling at Kaoru. "I'm sure once you get to know her, she isn't as bad as you think."

"A… Aa," Kaoru said, feeling very small. She looked down at her feet, both embarrassed that she had insulted someone Kenshin apparently thought well of, and mortified and crushed by the fact that he had come to Megumi's defense.

"If you say so Kenshin," Sanosuke said, shrugging. "If you ask me I don't trust the fox lady, and you shouldn't too. I'm gonna find out what she's up to Kenshin, watch out for your back and all. You're my best buddy, I can't just let you fall into some conniving trap of hers. You with me jou-chan?"

"Uhm, yeah, I guess," she mumbled. Sano laughed, slapping her good naturedly on the back. She jumped.

"C'mon, let's go, Higashidani's starting games now, _finally_."

-

"Oi, jou-chan!" Kaoru turned towards the direction of Sanosuke's voice, stopping just before she entered the Physics laboratory.

"Sano?" she said quizzically.

"You're my lab partner today," he said, grinning.

"_What?! _No way!" she said, slightly miffed. "If you think I'm going to do all the work for you like all your other lab partners…"

"That's not the reason," he said, laughing. "C'mon, I need to talk to you."

"Talk to me?" Kaoru repeated, puzzled. Even though they shared a bunch of classes together, they had never really talked much, he only really talked to (teased) Misao, but right now she was in Biology class, which Kaoru was not taking. "About?"

"I'll tell you later," he said hastily, ducking into the classroom as Yukyuzan Anji-sensei appeared behind him. Kaoru followed suit, but, instead of following Sanosuke to the back of the laboratory, she took her regular seat near the front with Higashidani Uki, who she usually paired up with.

"What did Sano want?" Uki asked Kaoru as she slid beside the girl.

"Oh, I dunno," Kaoru said, shrugging. "Can't be important coming from him." Uki giggled.

"Sorry, Uki," Sanosuke appeared at their table, giving Kaoru a dirty look. "But I'm going to have to borrow this tanuki for a lab period…" Ignoring Kaoru's protests ("What are you doing?! What about Uki?!"), he dragged her to the back of the lab, leaving behind a confused (and suddenly partner-less) Uki behind.

"Ouch, let go Sano!" Kaoru growled, smacking his hand. He finally let go, scowling at the red mark she left on his hand.

"What the hell is your problem, I asked you to follow me," he said angrily, rubbing his hand. "If this is the attitude I'm getting, maybe I shouldn't be helping you!" At that Kaoru fell silent and looked at him suspiciously.

"Help me?" she asked. "What is it you want to help me with?" Sano stopped rubbing his hands and grinned mischievously at her.

"I know your secret," he said with a self-satisfied smirk.

"What secret?" Kaoru asked, frowning. "Sano, if this is one of your tricks to make me do all the work again…"

"God, woman!" he said, throwing up his hands. "No! It is not! I know you like Kenshin!" Kaoru immediately froze, all thoughts of getting away from here and back to Uki forgotten.

"What?!" she gasped, choking. No one else knew! Aside from…

"Did Misao…" she whispered, unwilling to believe her friend's betrayal.

"Call me a genius," he said, straightening his collar. "I figured it out just now when you made that remark about Megumi."

"Y-You didn't tell him about it did you!" she demanded, grabbing him by said collar. His eyes widened in shock.

"Geez, relax jou-chan!" he said, unclenching her hands (_Wow this girl is strong!_). "Your secret's safe with me. For a price." Kaoru narrowed her eyes.

"If you think for one moment you're going to blackmail me…" she hissed dangerously, her hands snaking their way back to his collar. Sano laughed.

"Look, I need information and you can help provide it," he said, flashing her a toothy grin. "Meanwhile, _you_ have a problem and I—" he thumbed his chest proudly "—am Kenshin's best friend. Who better to help you with getting your lover boy than me? Call it a… Collaboration."

"Sano, I'm not helping you cheat in school," Kaoru warned, finally settling down. At the front, Yukyuzan-sensei was lecturing something about fulcrums and loads.

"It isn't academic, I promise," Sano said, rolling his eyes. "It's about _that_ guy." He jerked his thumb across the lab, towards Shinomori Aoshi, and Kaoru raised an eyebrow.

"Shinomori-kun?" Kaoru said. Inside, her head was in a whirl. What could Sano want to do with Aoshi? Did he know about Misao…? "Why do you wanna know about him?"

"Oh, no reason," he said smoothly, leaning casually on the lab table. "None that a girl should hear about anyway. What do you know about him?"

"Wait," Kaoru said, still suspicious. "I tell you what I know about Shinomori Aoshi, and you, in turn, will help bring me and Kenshin together?" Up a floor, in the Home Economics room, Kenshin sneezed, covering his face just in time to avoid covering his tempura ebi with gross stuff. _Oro? _"I'm coming off this too easily, what else do you want from me, Sagara?"

"You got me there," he admitted, grinning sheepishly. "I need you to do something for me…"

Across the laboratory, one Shinomori Aoshi sneezed.

* * *

**Author's Rants ( 8th September 2007, Saturday - Written as I post this chapter ) :**

Cliffhanger! Sort of... I'm quite happy with how this chapter turned out, I so didn't expect it to tak this turn, but it did! Sanosuke and Kaoru working together?? An unholy alliance, or will it all work out for the greater good? Hahah, actually, to be completely honest with you, I'm as much in the dark about this as you are. I don't know what Sano has up his sleeves, haha, barely a vague outline... I know, i'm setting myself up to be painted into a corner, haha, but i'll get out of it, I know I will!

As for such luck at Aoshi being in the same class as Sano and Kaoru, I actually didn't really plan for that. I spent about my whole morning writing out the time tables for Aoshi, Kenshin, Sano, Megumi, Misao and Kaoru to ensure consistency, and after I did that THEN i started writing my chapter, and just right everything flowed really nicely, after gym Sano would get Kaoru alone. I know can get a bit confusing because you don't know what classes they have together and all... Hopefully I'm explaining stuff well enough...

Anyway, an update! Yup, that's two in a week, and early too (tho a bit short and i'm sorry bout tt, but once again I couldn't fit anything else in! Plus, cliffhanger! It ended all too perfectly!). I kinda wanna makeup for missing my last deadline haha... Thanks to KyteAura, I'm paying more attention to each character rather than just stereotyping them into a character as fillers for Misao... As a result, you're probably gonna see more of the other RK characters as I try and develope them as well, like in this chapter... write little side stories about them and explain why they are like that, capture their characters and what not. But this is still an Aoshi Misao fic, haha, don't worry :)

Tell me what you think about the Megumi and Kenshin thing at the start, I really didn't mean to portray Megumi as a slut, which I realized I did at the start a bit, because she really isn't one, in fact I quite like her character, I was just using her without really giving much thought about the person tt she is, and I'm sorry to Megumi fans out there... Hopefully this redeems her, plus we get to see more of Kenshin's personality in this chapter! I know he's been totally in the background, haha, what with him being the main character of the manga and all... We'll definitely see more of Megumi in the next chapter tho! And who knows, Higashidani Uki may take on a bigger role than I expected, haha, this is her second appearance, which i definitely had not foreseen haha...

OK I'm done. Till next time:)


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